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Israel's army has warned several infantry brigade soldiers that they
will face trial if they do not return to combat in Gaza, Israel's KAN
public broadcaster reported on Wednesday.

The channel reported that at least 20 soldiers have refused to return
to Gaza, with at least 10 having received official warnings from the
army on Tuesday.

Families of some of the soldiers were quoted by Kan as saying that
their relatives “are forced to conduct ground manoeuvres in Gaza or
face prison”, with some offering to return to duty in areas other than
Gaza.

“There are only a few soldiers left in their company who are capable
of fighting... This is our time as parents to help them confront a
system that does not care about them,” the families were quoted as
saying.

Israel's army responded by saying that it is working to ensure that
soldiers are supported in their assigned tasks, with a spokesman
saying that punitive actions will not be meted out against soldiers.

More than ten months of war in Gaza has seen Israel destroy vast
swathes of the enclave, including entire neighbourhoods, roads,
schools and hospitals. Israeli forces have killed at least 40,602
Palestinians and wounded 93,855 since 7 October, according to Gaza's
health ministry.

In the same period, at least 704 Israeli soldiers have been killed,
including in Gaza and during the 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel.

During the course of Israel's war on Gaza, several soldiers have
spoken out against what they witnessed on the ground.

Earlier this month, Israeli reservist Michael Ofer Ziv told CNN that
he and other soldiers were given quotas of buildings to remotely
destroy each day in Gaza.

“They will tell us, today you have seven, today you have nine… you
sometimes argue for more, but you will never fire less than you’re
given,” Ofer Ziv said.

Another soldier who spoke to CNN, Yuval Green, recounted the scale of
the destruction meted out by the army.

“They don’t really care about the lives of Palestinians… we’ve
inflicted so much damage upon Gaza, something that would be beyond the
imagination of any reasonable person… I can’t imagine how people would
go back to living there,” he said.

Green also recalled the rhetoric of Israeli soldiers on the ground,
where discussions of mass killings were normalised.

“Ideas like killing the entire population of Gaza suddenly became
almost normal… suddenly hearing our commanders say that we’re not
going to be merciful this time… I felt like we were going to a very
bad place,” Green said.

Israel has been accused of committing genocide in Gaza, with an
ongoing case filed against it at the International Court of Justice.

Judges at the International Criminal Court are also deliberating
whether to issue arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, after an
application by the court's chief prosecutor in May.

https://www.newarab.com/news/israeli-soldiers-facing-trial-over-refusal-return-gaza