Israeli reservists are risking jail time rather than serve in Gaza again | CBC News

Roy Sommer knows he could go to jail if he refuses to return to Gaza, but that’s a risk he’s willing to take. 

Sommer, a reservist, has already served five years with the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), including recent tours in Gaza and Lebanon, but made a decision not to return to Gaza when his commander officially summons him for military service. 

The 24-year-old is among a growing number of Israeli youth who are publicly questioning their role in the war in Gaza. Some who are just coming of age are refusing their country’s mandatory military drafts. Others who already served, like Sommer, are refusing to go back. 

“In my opinion, the moral circumstances that are currently ongoing aren’t allowing me to go along with the war,” he told CBC’s As It Happens host Nil Köksal. 

Hundreds of soldiers refuse to go back

Sommer joined Soldiers for the Hostages, a recently formed organization in Israel that says it includes more than 350 soldiers who served in the war and won’t be reporting for duty again. 

“Netanyahu’s ongoing war of aggression needlessly puts our own hostages in danger and has wreaked havoc on the fabric of Israeli society, while at the same time killing, maiming and starving an entire population of Gazan civilians,” Max Kresch, another member of the group, told reporters.

Refusing to show up for reserve duty is an offence that can merit prison time, though only a handful of reserve soldiers who have refused to serve have been put in military imprisonment over the course of the war.

Sommer says he realizes that his decision is not “popular” in Israel and could lead to jail time but he couldn’t live with the other option of staying silent. 

“Making this war go on and on and on with no apparent justification will lead to a situation where Israel, both security-wise, also internationally-wise, is being more and more secluded, and the Palestinians on the ground are suffering as it goes along,” he said.

“I’m pretty sure that, in the long term, I’m on the right side of history, ethically speaking and morally speaking.” 

Israel calling reservists for fresh offensive

This week, Israel began calling tens of thousands of reservists as the country prepares for a fresh offensive on Gaza City – among them Sommer, who says he got an unofficial call to come serve. He is still waiting for the official summons but said he already notified his battalions that his answer would be no. 

Reflecting on his decision, Sommer said he feels like over the course of the two years since the Israel-Hamas war began, the goals have become “mostly for political gains for the current government.” 

“I think the war can end tomorrow, next week. It can end very quickly, and the only one that can decide if the war will end is Netanyahu,” he said.

With that in mind, Sommer felt that at this stage in the war, he had to differentiate between his responsibilities as a reservist and his responsibilities as a citizen. 

“I have a responsibility as a citizen to speak out against things that I disagree with, against things that I think are endangering my country, my family and my friends and that I think are morally wrong,” he said. “And I think that what I’m doing right now is even more important for the safety of Israel than taking part in the war.” 

Netanyahu to reservists: ‘I rely on you’

On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted a video to X pledging his support to reservists. “I believe in you, I rely on you,” Netanyahu said in the video after calling the war in Gaza a “sweeping victory.”

“I stand by you, and express my deep appreciation for you, IDF soldiers and reserve soldiers, and your families.” 

Sommer says that military service is intertwined with Israeli society and culture. 

“It’s sort of a religion,” he said. But, he feels that what should become a bigger part of Israeli life are democratic responsibilities. 

Recently, hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets of Tel Aviv to express their anger toward the ongoing war in Gaza and demand the release of the hostages. Protestors gathered after Netanyahu announced an expansion to the war and demanded an “immediate” end through a ceasefire deal. 

This week, in a post to Telegram, Hamas announced that it was ready to accept a deal that would see all the hostages released while it claimed it was waiting for a response from Israel on the latest proposal. The statement went on to say that the Aug. 18 deal included a “full withdrawal” of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip and a reopening of all border crossings for aid and the beginning of the reconstruction of the enclave. 

Netanyahu’s office said the statement was “Hamas spin” that had nothing new in it and reiterated their terms including the complete disarmament of Hamas and demilitarization of the strip as well as Israeli control of Gaza. 

‘Nothing to gain’

The current war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 251. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals. Of the 48 still held in Gaza, 20 are believed to be alive.

Since then, Israel has killed more than 64,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health authorities, and razed huge swaths of the Gaza Strip to the ground, including hospitals, residential areas and refugee camps.  

Human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel, as well as the International Association of Genocide Scholars, have all accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, something Israel fiercely denies. The International Court of Justice is pursuing a genocide case against the country, brought forward by South Africa.

Last month, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, which monitors hunger around the world, declared a famine in Gaza. Aid groups, including Human Rights Watch, say Israel is intentionally starving Gazans by blocking aid and shooting Palestinians who are lining up for food.  

Sommer said the continuation of the war and its expansion into Gaza City will only lead to putting hostage lives in more danger and more suffering for the Palestinians 

“I think the final plans some of the Israeli government officials are calling for are completely morally wrong,” he said. “I think both sides of the conflict, the Israeli and the Palestinian side, have nothing to gain from this.”