Hundreds of Israeli Ex-Security Chiefs Urge Trump to Help Broker Gaza Ceasefire
In a dramatic appeal aimed at halting one of the bloodiest conflicts in decades, nearly 600 retired Israeli security officials including former intelligence chiefs, defense ministers, and even a past prime minister have called on former US President Donald Trump to intervene and press Israel to end its war in Gaza.
The unprecedented letter, signed by figures such as ex-Mossad head Tamir Pardo, former Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon, former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and former Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon, urges Trump to use his influence with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to bring about an immediate ceasefire, secure the release of remaining hostages, and end the humanitarian catastrophe gripping the territory.
“It is our professional judgment that Hamas no longer poses a strategic threat to Israel,” the officials wrote. “Your 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.”
Their intervention comes as ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas remain stalled, and amid reports that Netanyahu is preparing to expand military operations in Gaza — a move critics warn could deepen Israel’s international isolation and worsen the humanitarian crisis.
The war began after Hamas launched a deadly assault on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
In the months since, more than 60,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, while the UN warns that famine-like conditions are already unfolding.
The ministry reports at least 180 people, including 93 children, have died from malnutrition as aid continues to be severely restricted.
The former commanders argue that Israel has already achieved its military objectives, and that continuing the war risks turning a “just and defensive” campaign into one of needless destruction. “At first this war was a just war,” Ayalon said. “But when we achieved all military objectives, this war ceased to be a just war.”
The appeal comes days after Hamas and Islamic Jihad released videos showing two visibly emaciated Israeli hostages — footage condemned across Israel and the West.
While Netanyahu pledged to the families that rescue efforts would continue “relentlessly,” an Israeli official told local media the prime minister still believes the hostages can be freed only through Hamas’s “military defeat.”
That stance has drawn sharp criticism from the main hostages’ families’ group, which warned: “Netanyahu is leading Israel and the hostages to doom.”
The letter to Trump marks the latest in a series of interventions by the Commanders for Israel’s Security, a group of high-ranking military veterans that has long pushed for pragmatic solutions to Israel’s security challenges — and, in this case, an urgent push to stop a war they say has gone far beyond its original mandate.
