The Israel Defense Forces said on Saturday A criminal investigation was launched An Israeli soldier went viral in a video calling for rebellion if the government retreated from its “total victory” over Hamas.
In the footage, the masked reservist addresses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from what appears to be a destroyed building in the Gaza Strip, supporting the hard-line Israeli leader and declaring that he and his fellow soldiers refuse to “hand over the keys” to the Palestinians or any other Arab groups.
“We, the reservists, are not going to hand over the keys to any Palestinian authority. We are not going to hand over the keys to Gaza to Hamas, Fatah or any other Arab organization,” he said in the video shared by Netanyahu’s son Yair, who lives in Miami and is not taking part in the war. According to Israeli media.
“Reserve soldiers are rooting for you. We want you to win,” a soldier says in the video.
The rebels have slammed Defense Minister Yoav Galant, who has been at odds with Netanyahu in recent weeks over plans for governing Gaza after the war with Hamas, and called for his resignation.
Earlier this month, Gallant publicly called on Netanyahu to make “tough decisions” about governing Gaza post-war without involving Hamas, warning that he would not support Israeli involvement in managing the Strip once the fighting ends.
“Joav Gallant, you can’t win the war. Quit!” a ranting soldier says in the video. “You can’t lead us!”
The soldier insisted he would refuse any orders from Gallant and promised that if the government did not pursue the removal of Hamas, he and 100,000 other reservists called up for war would be stationed on the borders of the embattled enclave and invite Israelis to join them.
“Our brothers and sisters did not die for no reason, they were not raped for no reason, they were not massacred in their beds for no reason,” he said, referring to the IDF soldiers killed amid the ongoing war in Gaza and the horror of the October 7 Hamas attack.
The Israeli military told The Times of Israel that it had launched an investigation into the footage and that IDF chief of staff Lt. Gen. Helgi Halevi had ordered all commanders to consult with their forces on the issue.
“The actions captured on the video are a serious violation of the IDF’s orders and values and may constitute criminal acts,” a military spokesman told the media.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid wrote to X Video calling for rebellion within the military is “dangerous and distressing”
Lapid slammed Netanyahu supporters who “enthusiastically” shared the video, calling it evidence of “another attempt to evade responsibility for the perpetrators of the greatest tragedy in Jewish history since the Holocaust.”
Other developments:
- Palestinian Escape from Jabalia Israeli forces continued operations on Friday to clear Hamas fighters who had regrouped in a refugee camp, and fighting broke out in the northern Gaza Strip, video footage showed.
- An international effort to deliver aid to starving Gazans through a $320 million pier built by the U.S. is struggling a week after it began operating, according to The Wall Street Journal. reportUN officials told the media that only 820 tonnes of aid had been transported through the wharf, and that around a dozen trucks that left were attacked by desperate Palestinians and never made it to their final destinations.
- Israel Defense Forces Said The Israeli government is investigating video footage posted on social media that shows soldiers burning books, including the Quran, at Al-Aqsa University in Gaza City, according to the Jerusalem Post.
With post wire
