Pilots in the Israeli army protest against the plan to occupy Gaza due to its danger to the prisoners.

Israeli occupation pilots demonstrated on Tuesday evening in front of the General Staff headquarters in Tel Aviv, protesting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to reoccupy the Gaza Strip. The pilots considered this plan to pose a significant danger to the prisoners and soldiers in the sector, as the security cabinet approved a plan to fully reoccupy Gaza, which sparked widespread protests in Israel.

The protests came after the pilots, who are reservists and retirees, announced their support for Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, who opposes the expansion of the war and calls for a deal to return prisoners from Gaza. Clear disagreements have emerged between Zamir and Netanyahu since the occupation plan was proposed, which includes the occupation of Gaza City and the displacement of its population of about one million.

The plan involves occupying Gaza City by displacing its residents to the south, then surrounding the city and conducting incursions into residential areas. The second phase includes occupying the refugee camps in the center of the sector, which have seen extensive destruction during the ongoing aggression since October 7, 2023.

In contrast, Zamir proposed a surrounding plan that includes multiple axes in Gaza, aimed at applying military pressure on Hamas to force it to release the prisoners, without falling into strategic traps. The pilots expressed their concern in their statement that the war imposes a heavy price on the prisoners, with an estimated 50 Israeli prisoners in Gaza, of whom 20 are alive.

Human rights reports speak of the suffering of more than 10,800 Palestinian prisoners in the occupation's jails, where they are subjected to torture, starvation, and medical neglect, leading to the martyrdom of many of them. The pilots confirmed that the war endangers the occupation's soldiers without purpose and causes unnecessary harm to innocent civilians.

The pilots also noted that this war is pushing the occupation's standing in the world to an unprecedented level of decline, emphasizing the need to stop this senseless war and immediately work to return the prisoners to their homes. In a related context, the families of the prisoners and martyrs announced their intention to carry out a comprehensive strike on August 17.

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has continued to commit genocide in the Gaza Strip, including killing, starvation, and destruction, ignoring international calls and orders from the International Court of Justice. This genocide has resulted in more than 61,000 Palestinian martyrs and 154,000 injured, in addition to hundreds of thousands of displaced persons and famine that has caused the deaths of 227 people.

For decades, the occupying state has continued to occupy Palestine and lands in Syria and Lebanon, refusing to withdraw from them or to establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, based on the borders prior to the 1967 war.