Silent crisis: Growing number of Israeli troops refuse to return to Gaza

An increasing number of Israeli regime soldiers are silently refusing orders to return to the battlefield in the besieged Gaza Strip due in large part to the resistance put up by the Palestinian fighters.

According to a recent report in the Israeli outlet HaMakom, interviews with over 20 parents and soldiers in a range of battalions have revealed growing dissatisfaction within the ranks.

“After 12 consecutive months of a war that goes nowhere, the soldiers are ‘black.’ In military slang, this means that they are depressed, worn out and unmotivated,” HaMakom said.

The soldiers say they are now depressed, unmotivated, worn out and psychologically damaged due to an unending campaign of death and destruction across the region.

Parents say troops feel demoralized having to return to places in Gaza where they fought months ago.

A parent named Eidit said the return to the places such as Jabalia, al-Zaytoun, and Shujaiya, “broke the soldiers.”

“These are the same places where they lost their friends. The area was already clean. It had to be preserved. It frustrated them a lot.”

“What kills them is the conditions and the duration of the fighting with no end in sight. You never know when you will get out and it's been like this for a year,” Eidit said.

Among the Nahal Brigade, soldiers spend 5 weeks fighting in Gaza before returning home to rest, something they have done 11 times so far since October 2023.

However, according to the report, during the 11th deployment only six soldiers of a platoon of 30 showed up. The others came up with an excuse.

“I call it refusal and rebellion,” said Inbal, mother of one of the soldiers in the platoon.

“They return to the same buildings that they cleaned, each time trapping them anew. They have been to al-Zaytoun neighborhood three times already. They understand that it is futile and pointless.”

“Because they were a small team, they couldn't go out on missions. They just stayed there and waited for the time to pass. It was even more unnecessary.”

Another parent of a soldier in Nahal said, “The wards are empty. Everyone who is not dead or injured is mentally damaged. There are very few left who returned to fight. And they're not quite right either.”

Israel threatens to prosecute soldiers refusing to return to Gaza

The Israeli military reportedly warns several troopers that they will be prosecuted if they do not return to Gaza, where the regime is waging a genocidal war against Palestinians.

‘Israeli soldiers becoming sitting ducks’

Yael, the mother of a commando, recounted her son’s frustration. “We are like sitting ducks at the range. We don't understand what we're doing here. The abductees don't come back a second and third time, and you see it's endless, and soldiers get injured and die on the way.”

In March, four soldiers of the unit were killed, and dozens more injured in three different attacks.

After returning from Gaza, the unit was converted to a reserve, and sent right back to fight in Gaza.

Israeli soldiers have been demolishing residential buildings with explosives, sniping children, shelling hospitals and schools housing the displaced, and destroying Gaza's water and electrical infrastructure.

After Israel’s ground offensive into Lebanon, in which the regime suffered major setbacks, losing a considerable number of its troops, a mother said her son told her, “I don't know what army they're thinking of entering Lebanon with, but I'm not going back to the battalion.”

Another soldier said offensives were being "done halfway" due to the lack of manpower.

“The platoons are empty; those who aren’t dead or physically wounded are mentally broken. Very few come back to fight, and even they aren’t fully okay.”

Among mothers of soldiers, the phenomenon is called “silent refusal” or “gray refusal.”

The Israeli military has published the names of over 750 troops killed since October 2023, including more than 350 who were killed on the ground in Gaza.

About 50 troops have been killed and hundreds more injured in attacks along Lebanon’s border in recent weeks.

The Resistance front says the number of military fatalities the regime has suffered is much higher as it keeps the real figures under the lid.

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