Hamid Khoshayand – Regional Affairs Expert

These protests, especially during the second period of the regime’s attack on Gaza, which began in late March 2025, are spreading in an “unprecedented” manner, and the wave of protests has also spread to important parts of the army, including the Air Force and military doctors.

In the latest protests, about a thousand Air Force veterans, including the former Chief of General Staff and several former high-ranking commanders, have signed a petition calling for an end to the war in Gaza. The signatories of the petition believe that the war in Gaza serves Netanyahu’s political and personal interests before serving “Israel’s national interests and security.”

Part of the protest petition, which was published by Israeli newspapers, states: “Continuing the war will not help achieve any of the stated goals and will only lead to the deaths of hostages, Israeli soldiers, and innocent civilians, and the depletion of the army’s reserve forces.”

In this letter, pilots and soldiers of the Israeli Air Force have called on residents of the occupied territories to “react” to demand an end to the war in Gaza. This request has led to the spread of street protests in the occupied territories, with more than 100,000 people recently holding protest rallies in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and other cities. Reserve forces from the Israeli regime’s elite Unit 8,200 also participated in these rallies.

Contrary to Netanyahu’s “policy of military pressure,” the protesting soldiers believe that an agreement with Hamas is the only way to return the Israeli prisoners. In their view, military pressure and violating the ceasefire and returning to war are a “betrayal,” and Netanyahu and his cabinet members have deliberately left the remaining hostages to die in Gaza.

The Israeli army not only ignores the military’s protests, but its mechanisms to contain tension within the army’s ranks have exacerbated the situation. For example, banning cadets from participating in street protests or suspending and dismissing several air force reservists and military doctors who signed a protest petition have had “the opposite effect” and increased the scope of the crisis.

Regarding the spread of the mutiny crisis in the Israeli army, various causes can be identified, the most important of which are mentioned below:

• The ineffective military measures of the war cabinet to free the prisoners, including the resumption of the military invasion of Gaza instead of dialogue and agreement with the resistance forces, which has endangered the lives of the prisoners;
• The failure to achieve the war’s goals after more than 18 months;
• The weakening of the morale of the soldiers of the Zionist army and their suffering from various mental and psychological illnesses due to their long presence in the war;
• Fear of international prosecution of the soldiers and commanders of the regime’s army and the possibility of their arrest in other countries, especially in a situation where foreign governments may set aside political considerations when arresting soldiers, unlike their treatment of high-ranking officials of the Zionist regime;
• The conflict between the goals of the war and the goals and interests pursued by Netanyahu himself, which are mainly tactical and political rather than strategic.

The combination of the factors mentioned above has made it an unjustifiable issue for the protesting soldiers to continue serving in the Israeli army and participating in the Gaza war, which, after 18 months, has not fully achieved any of its declared goals. There is no clear prospect of ending it.

However, what is more important is the consequences of the continued tension and disagreement within the ranks of the Israeli army. The mutiny crisis in various parts of the Israeli army, including the reservists of the 8200 Intelligence Unit (an elite cyber and intelligence unit), air force pilots, retired naval officers, and reserve doctors, reflects a deep and growing divide within Israeli society and the military establishment regarding the goals, strategy, and consequences of this war.

This issue has led to widespread distrust among the reservists in the assigned missions and, given the challenges the regime’s army faces in carrying out operations in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and the West Bank, may seriously damage the regime’s operational plans. At the same time, this situation, as signs of which are emerging, could lead to the weakening of the Israeli army in the Gaza war, the escalation of the war’s legitimacy crisis, and the risk of mass resignations that could disrupt the advancement of Netanyahu’s war plans.