A small group of reservists from Israel’s elite military intelligence unit joined a call for an immediate return of the hostages in Gaza even if it requires an immediate end to the war, in a sign of a growing protest movement after more than 18 months of war.

The public letter, with more than 250 signatories, says the war “is currently mainly serving political and personal interests and not security interests.”

“The continuation of the war doesn’t contribute to any of the declared objectives, and will lead to the death of hostages, (Israel Defense Forces) soldiers, and of innocents,” the authors wrote.

The letter was written by reservists and retirees from Israel’s elite Unit 8200, the biggest military intelligence unit. It also criticizes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s stated plans to defeat Hamas and return the remaining 59 hostages held in Gaza.

To continue governing, the prime minister requires the support of coalition partners from far-right parties who have threatened to quit the government should the war end.

“The government didn’t take responsibility for the catastrophe, and doesn’t admit that it has no plan or solution for the crisis,” the authors wrote. “We join the call of the air crews to all Israeli citizens to take action and demand, everywhere and in any way, the return of the hostages now and the cessation of the fighting.”

The new public protest comes a day after hundreds of air force retirees and reservists published a similar letter in major newspapers in Israel, saying “the war mainly serves political and personal interests and not security interests.”

Israel has a relatively small standing military, but a much larger reserve corps upon which it relies during an extended conflict. A growing protest movement within the reserves could potentially affect the Israeli military’s ability to conduct an extended campaign in Gaza.

While the two letters criticized the continuation of the war, the signatories have not refused to serve.

Within hours of the first letter’s release on Thursday, the Israeli military announced that it had fired the air force reservists who had signed the letter and was analyzing the signatures to see how many more were still in the military. An IDF official said most of the signatories are not active reservists.

The commander of the Israel Air Force, Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar, criticized the letter in his own missive published Friday.

“The messages which appear in the proclamation express a lack of trust and damage the cohesion within the force,” Bar wrote. “Such publication has no place during wartime as IDF soldiers and commanders are risking their lives.”

‘Funded by foreign money’

Netanyahu slammed the new protest letter and attempted to cast the authors as a tiny minority.

“They were written by a small group of bad apples, operated by organizations funded by foreign money, which have one goal – topping the right-wing government,” Netanyahu said in a statement, without providing any evidence of his claims of foreign influence.

But Netanyahu’s statement acknowledged that the protest letters were coming from multiple parts of the military, and mentioned a potential similar letter from the navy. “Once again those same letters: one time on behalf of pilots, another time on behalf of navy graduates, and other times under different names,” he said.

The prime minister tried to downplay the significance of the letters despite recent polls showing that nearly 70% of the Israeli public supports an end to the war in order to free the remaining hostages.

“This isn’t a trend. This isn’t an influx. This is a small group of retired personnel, who are loud, anarchist and disconnected,” he said.

The move to clamp down on the public protest appeared aimed at stemming increasingly vocal discontent among reservists and preventing a repeat of 2023, when waves of reservists said they would refuse to serve in protest of Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul efforts.

Nearly all of those reservists ultimately answered call-ups they received after Israel was attacked on October 7, but that wartime unity has begun to falter as the war has dragged on.