Around 200 Israeli soldiers have signed a letter pledging to stop fighting in Gaza unless the government negotiates a cease-fire, due to human rights violations they said "crossed ethical lines."
Yotam Vilk recalls a haunting image of Israeli soldiers killing an unarmed Palestinian teenager in Gaza, a memory he says remains etched in his mind.
An officer in the armored corps, Vilk explained that orders were to shoot anyone entering an Israeli-controlled buffer zone in Gaza without authorization. He witnessed at least 12 people killed but says the teenager’s death is one he cannot forget.
Vilk is part of a growing group of Israeli soldiers opposing the 15-month conflict and refusing to serve further, citing actions they witnessed or carried out that they believe crossed ethical boundaries.
The soldiers' refusal comes at a time of mounting pressure. Cease-fire talks are underway, and both President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump have called for a deal by the Jan. 20 inauguration.
Seven soldiers who've refused to continue fighting in Gaza spoke with AP, describing how Palestinians were indiscriminately killed and houses destroyed. Several said they were ordered to burn or demolish homes that posed no threat, and they saw soldiers loot and vandalize residences.
Soldiers are required to steer clear of politics, and they rarely speak out against the army.
International rights groups have accused Israel of war crimes and genocide in Gaza. The International Court of Justice is investigating genocide allegations filed by South Africa. The International Criminal Court is seeking the arrests of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over war crimes in the Gaza Strip.
Israel rejects genocide allegations and says it takes extraordinary measures to minimize civilian harm in Gaza, despite evidence proving otherwise. The army claims it never intentionally targets civilians. But rights groups have long said the army does a poor job of investigating itself.
The army told AP it condemns the refusal to serve and takes any call for refusal seriously, with each case examined individually. Soldiers can go to jail for refusing to serve.
When Vilk entered Gaza in November 2023, he said, he thought the initial use of force might bring both sides to the table. But as the war dragged on, he said he saw the value of human life disintegrate.
On the day the Palestinian teenager was killed last August, he said, Israeli troops shouted at him to stop and fired warning shots at his feet, but he kept moving. He said others were also killed walking into the buffer zone - the Netzarim Corridor, a road dividing northern and southern Gaza.
Vilk acknowledged it was hard to determine whether people were armed, but said he believes soldiers acted too quickly.
Some soldiers told AP it took time to digest what they saw in Gaza. Others said they became so enraged they decided they'd stop serving almost immediately.
Yuval Green, a 27-year-old medic, described abandoning his post last January after spending nearly two months in Gaza, unable to live with what he’d seen.
He said soldiers desecrated homes, using black markers meant for medical emergencies to scribble graffiti, and looted homes, looking for prayer beads to collect as souvenirs.
The final straw, he said, was his commander ordering troops to burn down a house, saying he didn’t want Hamas to be able to use it. Green said he sat in a military vehicle, choking on fumes amid the smell of burning plastic. He found the fire vindictive - he said he saw no reason to take more from Palestinians than they’d already lost. He left his unit before their mission was complete.
Green said he understands Israeli anger over Oct. 7 but hopes his act of refusal encourages all sides to break the cycle of violence.
Soldiers for the Hostages - the group behind the letter troops signed - is trying to garner momentum, holding an event this month in Tel Aviv and gathering more signatures. A panel of soldiers spoke about what they'd seen in Gaza. Organizers distributed poster-size stickers with a Martin Luther King Jr. quote: "One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”
Max Kresch, an organizer, said soldiers can use their positions to create change. "We need to use our voice to speak up in the face of injustice, even if that is unpopular,” he said.
But some who fought and lost colleagues call the movement a slap in the face. More than 830 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the war, according to the army.
"They are harming our ability to defend ourselves,” said Gilad Segal, a 42-year-old paratrooper who spent two months in Gaza at the end of 2023. He said everything the army did was necessary, including the flattening of houses used as Hamas hideouts. It’s not a soldier’s place to agree or disagree with the government, he argued.
Ishai Menuchin, spokesperson for Yesh Gvul, a movement for soldiers refusing to serve, said he works with more than 80 soldiers who have refused to fight and that there are hundreds more who feel similarly but remain silent.
Some of the soldiers who spoke to AP said they feel conflicted and regretful, and they're talking to friends and relatives about what they saw to process it.
Many soldiers suffer from "moral injury,” said Tuly Flint, a trauma therapy specialist who's counseled hundreds of them during the war. It's a response when people see or do something that goes against their beliefs, he said, and it can result in a lack of sleep, flashbacks and feelings of unworthiness. Talking about it and trying to spark change can help, Flint said.
One former infantry soldier told AP about his feelings of guilt - he said he saw about 15 buildings burned down unnecessarily during a two-week stint in late 2023. He said that if he could do it all over again, he wouldn’t have fought.
"I didn’t light the match, but I stood guard outside the house. I participated in war crimes,” said the soldier, speaking on condition of anonymity over fears of retaliation. "I’m so sorry for what we’ve done.”
Israel has continued a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border incursion by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.
The second year of conflict has drawn growing international condemnation, with officials and institutions labeling the attacks and blocking of aid deliveries as a deliberate attempt to destroy a population.
A study published last Friday in The Lancet medical journal estimates that the Palestinian death toll during the first nine months of the Israeli rampage on Gaza was approximately 40% higher than previously reported by the enclave's health ministry.
As of June 30, 2023, the health ministry in Gaza had recorded 37,877 deaths.
However, the peer-reviewed study, which used data from the ministry, an online survey and social media obituaries, estimates that between 55,298 and 78,525 people died from traumatic injuries during the same period.
The study's most accurate estimate places the death toll at 64,260, indicating a 41% underreporting by the health ministry.
This number represents 2.9% of Gaza's pre-war population, or approximately one in 35 inhabitants, according to the study.
Researchers found that 59% of those who died were women, children and the elderly.
