Nearly 600 retired Israeli security officials and former intelligence agency heads have written to Donald Trump urging him to put pressure on Israel to end the war in Gaza immediately.
The Commanders For Israelâs Security (CIS) group sent a letter to the US President with 550 signatories, including fomer Mossad director Tamir Pardo, ex-Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon, and former deputy Israeli army chief Matan Vilnai.
The CIS movement is made up of retired senior defence and foreign service officials, who support a two-state solution to secure Israelâs future as âthe strong democratic home of the Jewish people via separation from the Palestiniansâ.
âIt is our professional judgement that Hamas no longer poses a strategic threat to Israel,â reads the open letter, which was sent on Friday and shared with the media later. âYou did it in Lebanon. Time to do it in Gaza as well.â
âChasing remaining senior Hamas operatives can be done later. Our hostages canât wait.â
The appeal comes as videos of two emaciated Israeli hostages in Gaza were released, sparking international condemnation and protests over the weekend.
Evyatar David, 24, and Rom Braslavski, 21, were abducted from the Nova music festival on 7 October 2023 and recorded in fragile condition.
They are among the 49 hostages believed still in Gaza, of whom 27 are believed to be dead.
French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz were among the leaders condemning the videos.
Protests also erupted in Tel Aviv on Sunday and in front of the prime ministerâs office in Jerusalem on Monday, calling to end the war and release the hostages.
Indirect ceasefire talks have stalled and Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly pushing to expand military operations in Gaza.
The letter argued that the IDF has achieved its military objectives – dismantling Hamasâ governance and military formations – and that securing the hostages now requires a deal.
The letter continued: âYour credibility with the vast majority of Israelis augments your ability to steer Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government in the right direction: 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.â
A UN-backed food security agency warned that a âworst-case scenario of famineâ is unfolding in the besieged enclave.
More than 60,000 people have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
