The group’s letter says the Israeli army has already achieved its objectives and the release of Israeli captives can be achieved only through a deal.
More than 600 former Israeli security chiefs have urged United States President Donald Trump to bring an end to Israel’s war on Gaza as deaths of dozens of Palestinians from Israeli-induced starvation have caused global outrage.
The appeal was made in a letter sent to Trump on Sunday. Its signatories include former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo, former Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon and former deputy Israeli army chief Matan Vilnai. They called for pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the nearly two-year conflict, which has devastated Gaza.
The letter was sent as a furore grows over videos released by Palestinian groups showing two emaciated Israeli captives held in Gaza, where more than two million Palestinians are struggling to survive the starvation crisis.
“Everything that could be achieved by force has been achieved. The hostages cannot wait any longer,” the Commanders for Israel’s Security (CIS) group said in a post on X, where it shared the letter.
The letter said the Israeli army has achieved two of its three objectives by force, “dismantling Hamas’ military formations and governance”, but the third, bringing back all Israeli captives, can “only be achieved through a deal”.
“Stop the Gaza War! On behalf of CIS, Israel’s largest group of former [military] generals and Mossad, Shin Bet, Police, and Diplomatic Corps equivalents, we urge you to end the Gaza war,” the letter read.
“You did it in Lebanon. Time to do it in Gaza as well,” it added.
On Sunday, Hamas said it was open to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delivering aid to Israeli captives in Gaza after Netanyahu said he requested the Geneva-based international organisation to step in.
Netanyahu has denied starvation is taking place in Gaza among Palestinians, instead claiming that Israeli captives held there are facing “systematic starvation”.
The Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, has said the captives “eat what our fighters and all our people eat”.
“They will not receive any special privilege amid the crime of starvation and siege,” the group’s spokesman, known as Abu Obeida, said.
Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has conducted a war on Gaza since October 7, 2023, killing more than 60,800 Palestinians, most of them women and children.
Gaza turned into rubble
The military campaign has reduced the enclave to rubble and brought it to the verge of famine.
In November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants against Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
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