The Israeli army announced on Saturday that it had launched a criminal investigation against one of its soldiers who, in a viral video, called for a mutiny if the government gave up “complete victory” against Hamas.
In the footage, a masked reservist addresses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from what appears to be a destroyed building in Gaza, supporting the hawkish Israeli leader and declaring that he and his comrades refuse to “hand over the keys” to the Palestinians or other Arab groups. .
“We, reserve soldiers, do not intend to hand over the keys to any Palestinian authority. We do not intend to give the keys to Gaza to any entity – Hamas, Fatah or any other Arab entity,” he said in the video, shared by Netanyahu’s son Yair, who lives in Miami and did not take part in the war. , according to Israeli media.
“The reserve soldiers are behind you and we want to win,” the soldier says in the video.
The mutinous fighter also attacked Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who has clashed with Netanyahu in recent weeks over plans to govern Gaza after the war with Hamas, and demanded that the cabinet member of war resigns.
Earlier this month, Gallant publicly called on Netanyahu to make “difficult decisions” on Gaza’s post-war governance that would not involve Hamas, and warned that he did not support any Israeli involvement in the management of the enclave after the end of the fighting.
“Yoav Gallant, you cannot win the war. Stop! “, said the grandiloquent soldier in the video. “You can’t order us!” »
The soldier said he would refuse any order from Gallant, promising that if the government did not pursue the elimination of Hamas, he and the 100,000 reserve troops called up to fight the war would station themselves on the border of the besieged enclave – where they would appeal to Israeli citizens to join them.
“Our brothers and sisters did not die for nothing, were not raped for nothing and were not massacred in their beds for nothing,” he said, referring to the IDF soldiers who were killed during the ongoing war in Gaza and the horrors of war. Hamas attack on October 7.
The Israeli military told The Times of Israel that it had opened an investigation into the footage and that IDF Chief of Staff General Herzi Halevi had ordered all commanders to discuss the matter with their troops.
“The behavior shown in the video constitutes a serious violation of IDF orders and values, and constitutes suspicion of criminal offenses,” a military spokesperson told the outlet.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid wrote on X that images calling for rebellion within the army are “dangerous and disastrous.”
Lapid blasted Netanyahu supporters who “enthusiastically” shared the video as evidence of “another attempt to evade responsibility for leading to the greatest disaster in the history of the Jewish people since the Holocaust “.
In other developments:
- Palestinians fled Jabalia, in northern Gaza, on Friday as the Israeli army continued its operations to eliminate Hamas fighters who had gathered in the refugee camp, video footage showed.
- An international effort to provide aid to starving Gazans through a $320 million U.S.-built pier struggled in its first week of operation, the Wall Street Journal reported. Only 820 tons of aid were delivered through the dock, and about a dozen trucks from the dock failed to reach their final destination, having been attacked by desperate Palestinians, United Nations officials told the news outlet.
- The Israeli military said it was investigating video footage posted on social media showing soldiers at Al-Aqsa University in Gaza City burning books, including a Quran, the Jerusalem Post reported .
With post wires
New York Post
