More than a dozen former Israeli security officials issued a video appeal on Monday, calling for an immediate end to the war in Gaza.

“This war started as a just war. It was a defensive war,” says former director of the Shin Bet domestic intelligence service Ami Ayalon in the video.

“But once we achieved all its military objectives, once we achieved a brilliant military victory against all our enemies, this war stopped being a just war.

“It is leading the State of Israel to the loss of its security and identity,” he added.

The video shows the men sitting around a long table in what appears to be an empty office.

Among the 19 former senior officials featured are former chief of staff and prime minister Ehud Barak, former chiefs of staff Moshe Ya’alon and Dan Halutz, and three former heads of the Mossad foreign intelligence service.

In the video, the men said the war is being continued for political reasons only and called for an agreement that returns all of the 50 remaining hostages in one go.

“We are on the precipice of defeat,” former Mossad director Tamir Pardo warns.

Several of them said Israel is being led by a fundamentalist, extremist government that no longer has the support of the majority.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched the military campaign in the Gaza Strip in October 2023 in response to the Hamas-led attacks on Israel, which killed more than 1,200 people and saw another 250 abducted into Gaza.

Efforts to secure a ceasefire and the release of hostages through indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas have dragged on for months without results.

(dpa/NAN)