More than a dozen former senior Israeli security officials issued a joint video message Sunday with a call to end the war in Gaza, arguing that Israel has racked up more losses than victories and that the fighting has dragged on for political reasons rather than strategic military need.

Among the 19 retired IDF chiefs of staff, intelligence chiefs, Shin Bet and Mossad directors, and police commissioners backing the clip were former prime minister  and IDF chief Ehud Barak and former IDF chiefs of staff Moshe Ya’alon and Dan Halutz; ex-Shin Bet directors Nadav Argaman, Yoram Cohen, Ami Ayalon, Yaakov Peri and Carmi Gillon; ex-Mossad chiefs Tamir Pardo, Efraim Halevy and Danny Yatom; and former Israel Police commissioners Dudi Cohen, Moshe Karadi, Rafi Peled and Assaf Hefetz. Many of those featured in the video have previously criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the coalition’s handling of the war.

“Each of these people sat in cabinet meetings, operated in the inner circles, attended all the most sensitive decision-making processes,” a voiceover at the start of the video says by way of introduction. “Together, they have more than a thousand years’ experience in national security and diplomacy.”

Government critics say Netanyahu is avoiding agreeing on a permanent end to the war and the return of the 50 hostages still in captivity in order to preserve his coalition, which relies on far-right parties that insist on continuing the fight and whose leaders have voiced their desire to permanently conquer Gaza, push out its residents, and resettle it with Jews.

In the English-subtitled video, the men argue that the fighting in Gaza could have ended long ago and demand that Israel end the war with a permanent ceasefire and comprehensive hostage deal that will see the release of all 50 remaining hostages in one fell swoop.

“We have a duty to stand up and say what we need to say,” former Shin Bet director Ami Ayalon said. “This war started as a just war. It was a defensive war. 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.”

Former military intelligence chief Amos Malka posited that Israel was “well over a year past the point where we could have ended the war with a sufficient operational achievement.”

Instead, declared ex-Shin Bet director Nadav Argaman, “We are now mostly offsetting losses.”

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

“What the world sees today is of our own creation,” he said of the dire humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip. “We are hiding behind a lie that we wrought. This lie was sold to the Israeli public, and the world has long since understood that it doesn’t reflect the real picture.

“There are moments that represent a ‘black flag’ in which one must stand firm and say: This far and no further,” Ya’alon declared. “Right now, we have a government that the messianic zealots have pulled in a certain irrational direction.”

Ya’alon was seemingly referring to the far-right Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit parties, both of which oppose a deal to release remaining hostages if it means halting the war. The parties are led by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, respectively.

“They are a minority,” said Cohen, “but the problem is that the minority controls the policy.”

He said anyone who believes Israel can “reach every terrorist and every pit and every weapon, and at the same time bring our hostages home,” is entertaining a fantasy.

“The IDF, with all of its capabilities, cannot realize the fantasy of someone who is sitting in the cabinet, who believes his fantasy can be achieved,” Cohen said.

The security officials called for those currently in the posts they once held to take a stance against the continuation of the war.

They must “bravely stand up before the prime minister and before the cabinet and say their piece… about this war and its futility,” said Argaman.

“It is their duty to say what they can do and what cannot be done, even if someone really wants it [done],” he added.

The video was published on the social media channels of UnXeptable, which describes itself as a “grassroots movement launched by a group of Israelis residing in the San Francisco – Bay Area in support of a democratic Israel.”

On Friday, a group of five former security officials, among them Ayalon, Pardo, and Hefetz, sent a letter to US President Donald Trump urging him to end the war.

The signatories, from the Commanders for Israel’s Security lobby group, laid out to Trump that Israel has “long accomplished” the two objectives of the war that can be achieved by force — the dismantling of Hamas’s military formations and its governance. The third objective, the return of the hostages, they said, “can only be achieved through a deal.”

They asserted that in their professional opinion, Hamas was no longer a strategic threat to Israel and said the country had the ability to cope with any remaining capabilities the terror group has.

“Your credibility with the vast majority of Israelis augments your ability to steer Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government in the right direction,” they wrote. “End the war, return the hostages, stop the suffering.”

The letter also called on Trump to forge a “regional-international coalition” that would help a reformed Palestinian Authority offer an alternative to Gazans in place of Hamas “and its vicious ideology.”

The two other signatories were Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Matan Vilnai, who is a former IDF deputy chief of staff and now chairs Commanders for Israel’s Security, and Ambassador (ret.) Jeremy Issacharoff, who is a former vice director general of the Foreign Ministry.

Amid stalled negotiations for another ceasefire, Netanyahu is in favor of expanding the war, according to a diplomatic source quoted Sunday by Hebrew media. Though the reports said he has the backing of some ministers, he is opposed by IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, Shas leader Aryeh Deri, National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi and Mossad chief David Barnea, as well as the Shin Bet’s negotiator, who is known by the Hebrew initial “Mem,” and Maj. Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon, who is overseeing the hostage file for the military.

Following the reports of Netanyahu’s plans, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said the premier was “leading Israel and the hostages to the abyss.”

“The talk, which has been heard again and again, about releasing the hostages through decisive victory is a fraud,” said the Forum, which represents a majority of the families of the remaining 50 hostages.

The Hamas October 2023 attack killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Of the 50 hostages still in captivity, most are believed to no longer be alive and there is great concern for the health of the others, in particular after Gazan terror groups over the weekend released videos of two captives, Rom Braslavski, 21, and Evyatar David, 24, who both appeared pale and emaciated.