Hundreds of former Israeli officials, including past heads of the Mossad and Shin Bet, sent President Donald Trump a letter asking him to force the Israeli prime minister to end military operations in Gaza. The letter said Hamas no longer posed a threat to Israel.
“Stop the Gaza War!” the letter to Trump from Commanders for Israel’s Security (CIS) said. “Israel’s largest group of former IDF generals and Mossad, Shin Bet, Police, and Diplomatic Corps equivalents, we urge you to end the Gaza war. You did it in Lebanon. Time to do it in Gaza as well.”
“Your credibility with the vast majority of Israelis augments your ability to steer Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government in the right direction,” the letter continues. “End the war, return the hostages, stop the suffering, and forge a regional-international coalition that helps the Palestinian Authority (once reformed) to offer Gazans and all Palestinians an alternative to Hamas and its vicious ideology.”
Washington provides Tel Aviv with military aid and weapons, and the US regularly pressures allies to refrain from diplomatic actions against Israel. The US has paid for 70% of Israel’s post-October 7 wars, which include major operations in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as hundreds of airstrikes on Syria, Lebanon and Iran.
Trump has refused to leverage American support for Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to get Tel Aviv to agree to a ceasefire. In March, Netanyahu broke the ceasefire that was brokered by Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff in January.
If Trump had forced Netanyahu to comply with the agreement, the remaining Israeli hostages would have been released, and the onslaught in Gaza would have come to an end.
CIS explained to Trump that the only way to secure the release of the hostages is through an agreement with Hamas. “The IDF has long accomplished the two objectives that could be achieved by force: dismantling Hamas’ military formations and governance. The third, and most important, can only be achieved through a deal: bringing all hostages home,” the letter said.
The letter was first reported by the Jerusalem Post on Sunday. The same day, an Israeli official said that Netanyahu believed a deal with Hamas is not possible, and that he would use “decisive military action” to free the remaining captives.
In their letter, the senior Israeli officials argued that if Tel Aviv ended operations in Gaza, Hamas would no longer pose a strategic threat. “It is our professional judgment that Hamas no longer poses a strategic threat to Israel, and our experience tells us that Israel has all it takes to deal with its residual terror capabilities, remotely or otherwise. Chasing remaining senior Hamas operatives can be done later. Our hostages can’t wait,” they explained.
