TEL AVIV (Dispatches) -- Six hundred Israeli architects and urban planners have signed a petition demanding an immediate halt to the occupying regime’s war on the Gaza Strip and the return of captives.
The petition preceded a similar move by 970 reservists and retirees of the Israeli air force on April 10. Since then, thousands of reservists and retirees from various branches of the Israeli military and intelligence have joined the petition.
Meanwhile, academics, parents of students, fathers and mothers of soldiers, and families of prisoners in Gaza published messages of solidarity with the military, emphasizing the same demand.
On Monday, members of an infantry brigade of the Israeli military signed a letter calling for an end to the war.
According to Israeli Army Radio, 150 Golani Brigade soldiers put their signatures on the letter demanding immediate negotiations aimed at securing the release of Israeli captives held in Gaza.
Since Thursday, at least ten petitions have circulated against the continuation of the Gaza onslaught, saying the Tel Aviv regime should prioritize the return of Israeli captives even if it means ending the war.
The first petition signed by current and former Israeli air force reservists said the Gaza onslaught “serves mainly political and personal interests, not security interests.”
They were referring to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence on continuing the brutal genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
In response, Israeli chief of staff Eyal Zamir dismissed active-duty reservists who had signed the petition.
Netanyahu supported the dismissal, claiming that the petition was written by a “small group of radicals, operated by foreign-funded organizations” who are trying to “overthrow” his cabinet.
Separate petitions were signed by some 150 retired naval officers, over 250 reservists and veterans of the military’s Unit 8200, and 1,525 Armored Corps veterans, including former prime minister and chief of staff Ehud Barak.
About 500 entrepreneurs, investors and workers from Israel’s high-tech sector, as well as 2,000 Israeli military doctors, and more than 6,000 academics and education officials also wrote similar letters.
Other petitions were signed by hundreds of veterans from Israel’s Mossad and Shin Bet spy agencies, along with over 1,500 veterans of the Israeli military’s infantry units, the paratroopers and special forces.
The Zionist regime launched its deadly bombing campaign on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, after the Hamas resistance group carried out a historic operation against the usurping entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.
In its operation, Hamas took 251 Zionists captive, 58 of whom now remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the occupation’s military. Several of the captives have been killed in the regime’s strikes on the besieged territory.
On Tuesday, the armed wing of Hamas said it had lost contact with a group of resistance fighters holding Israeli-American captive Edan Alexander in the Gaza Strip.
Abu Ubaida, the armed wing’s spokesperson, said on the Telegram that it lost contact after the Israeli military attacked the place where the fighters were holding Alexander, who is a New Jersey native and a 21-year-old soldier in the Zionist army.
The armed wing later released a video warning captives families that their “children will return in black coffins with their bodies torn apart from shrapnel from your army”.
Hamas has previously blamed Israel for the deaths of captives held in Gaza, including as a direct result of military aggression.
President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff told reporters at the White House in March that gaining the release of Alexander, believed to be the last living American captive held by Hamas in Gaza, was a “top priority for us”.
The Tikva Forum, a group representing some family members of those held in Gaza, had said earlier on Tuesday that Alexander was among up to 10 capatives who could be released by Hamas if a new ceasefire was reached.
On Saturday Hamas released a video purportedly showing Alexander, who has been held in Gaza since he was captured by Palestinian fighters on October 7, 2023.