A new crisis faces the Israeli occupation army after an Israeli soldier serving in the Gaza Strip posted a video on Saturday, May 25, 2024, threatening a widespread military rebellion if the Israeli Minister of War, Yoav Galant, decides to bring the Palestinian Authority into Gaza or withdraw from the sector. This prompted the army to open an investigation into the incident.
The video, which sparked widespread controversy on Israeli platforms, including accounts of Israeli activists and journalists, and was picked up by Israeli media, showed a masked reserve soldier inside what appeared to be a demolished house in Gaza. Behind him were slogans written in Hebrew for the extremist “Kah” movement classified as “terrorist in Israel,” according to the Hebrew newspaper “Maariv.” The soldier said, “I will not surrender, nor will 100,000 reserve soldiers, the keys of Gaza to the Palestinian Authority or to Fatah, Hamas, or any Arab entity.”
He demanded the defense minister’s resignation, adding, “You cannot win the war, and you cannot lead us or issue orders to us.” He further addressed Galant, saying, “I tell you, if we do not go to victory, 100,000 reserve soldiers will remain here. We will not move from here. And we will call on the residents of the State of Israel to come to Gaza under the protection of our army.”
He continued, “We will listen to one leader. He is not the defence minister, nor the chief of staff (Hertzi HaLevi), he is only the prime minister (Benjamin Netanyahu).”
An Israeli soldier’s rebellion in Gaza
The soldier revealed prevailing retaliatory inclinations within the Israeli army, saying, “We want to kill everyone who celebrated our slaughter, all the young children who trampled on the heads of our soldiers in Gaza. None of these will remain alive, and you, Mr. Galant, cannot do anything about it.”
He added, threatening the defence minister, “Here I inform you, either you change your record and realize that we want victory, or we will go with the prime minister alone, and we will only follow those who decide that we must win.” According to “Maariv,” the video shocked the Israeli army internally, and it was shared by the son of Prime Minister Yair Netanyahu on his Telegram account.
The newspaper “Haaretz” mentioned that “what the speaker said in the video, in addition to its dissemination by Yair Netanyahu, may constitute a criminal offence related to incitement and dissemination of sedition, punishable by up to five years in prison.”
A spokesperson for the Israeli army said, “The behaviour documented in the video is a serious violation of the orders and values of the Israeli army and constitutes suspicion of committing criminal offences,” according to the same source. He added that the chief military prosecutor had ordered an investigation by the military police into the incident.
The spokesperson said, “Due to the seriousness of the incident, the Chief of Staff, Hertzi HaLevi, has instructed a dialogue with soldiers and leaders at all levels.”
For months, it has appeared that there is a dispute between Defense Minister Galant and Prime Minister Netanyahu over the future of Gaza’s governance.
Netanyahu’s son shares the video
The video of the Israeli soldier, uploaded on social media from the pages of Channel 14 correspondent Yanun Magal, received significant interaction on accounts attributed to Israeli journalists and activists. However, the surprise came when Yair Netanyahu, the son of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, shared the video on his Telegram account.
Yair Netanyahu’s sharing of the video, while he lives in Miami, indicates implicit approval from the Israeli Prime Minister’s son of the video’s content, especially as recent days have seen disputes between Netanyahu and the security establishment. Netanyahu exchanged accusations with the army leadership over the nature of security risk assessments before the Al-Aqsa storm. Meanwhile, the head of the Israeli National Security Council, Tzahi Hanegbi, affirmed that none of the strategic objectives of the war on Gaza have been achieved.
The Israeli occupation army announced that Netanyahu had received several warnings from military intelligence during 2023 about the security risks facing Israel, during the internal disturbances caused by the government’s plan to amend the judicial system.
An Israeli army spokesperson said that between March and July 2023, the Intelligence Branch sent four warning messages indicating how enemies of Israel in various arenas view the damage to the state’s cohesion and the army, and these details came in a letter from the Israeli army spokesperson to a non-governmental organization that had requested information about those warnings seven months ago.
For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement saying, “The claim by the military establishment that I was warned before October 7 of a possible attack from Gaza is contrary to the truth.” Netanyahu added that “security assessments do not indicate any warning of Hamas’ intention to attack Israel, but rather present an opposite assessment,” emphasizing that “the security agencies have always claimed that Hamas has been deterred.”
There have been many criticisms from Israeli journalists and activists directed at the Israeli soldier who posted the video. One Israeli activist commented on the Israeli soldier’s video, saying that the soldier exposed himself to legal accountability and published some provisions of Israeli penal law, especially Articles 133 and 139 of the chapter on violations of the system and society. Article 133 imposes a prison sentence of up to five years for anyone who “commits an act of sedition or attempts or conspires with his friend to commit that act.”
Article 134 imposes the same punishment on anyone who prints or reproduces seditious materials, and Article 136 specifies points of sedition such as those mentioned in the law, such as inciting hatred and contempt, disloyalty to the state and its governing or judicial authorities, incitement or provocation of the state’s population, causing hesitation or annoyance in war, and inciting disputes and hostilities among the population.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has waged a destructive war on the Gaza Strip, resulting in more than 116,000 Palestinians killed or injured, most of them children and women, and about 10,000 missing, amid massive destruction and famine that claimed the lives of children and the elderly.
