More than 500 former Israeli security chiefs and diplomats criticize the Netanyahu administration's course and call on Trump to force a truce in Gaza.

More than 500 former Israeli security officials, including several former heads of the Mossad and the Homeland Security Agency, called on US President Donald Trump on Monday to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war in Gaza.

"Stop the war in Gaza!" urges a letter from the Commanders for Israel Security (CIS) movement, signed by 550 former spy chiefs, military officers, police officers, and diplomats.

" This war has ceased to be a just war and is causing the State of Israel to lose its identity," warns Ami Ayalon, former director of the Shin Bet, the internal security service, in a video released by the same movement to accompany the publication of this letter.

On behalf of CIS, the largest Israeli group of former generals from the army, Mossad, Shin Bet, police, and equivalent diplomatic corps, we urge you to end the war in Gaza.

Three former heads of the Mossad, the foreign intelligence service, (Tamir Pardo, Efraim Halevy, Danny Yatom); five former heads of the Shin Bet, the internal security service, (Nadav Argaman, Yoram Cohen, Ami Ayalon, Yaakov Peri, Carmi Gilon); and three former army chiefs of staff (Ehud Barak, Moshe Bogie Yaalon, Dan Halutz) are among the signatories of the letter and appear in a video.

"Each of these people attended cabinet meetings, operated in the most confidential circles, participated in all the most sensitive, most delicate decision-making processes," highlights the voiceover in the video, broadcast on the social network X by army radio.

Alone and together, they have more than a thousand years of experience in national security and diplomacy, they emphasize.

"On behalf of the CIS, the largest group of former Israeli generals from the army, Mossad, Shin Bet, police, and equivalent diplomatic corps, we urge you to end the war in Gaza. You did it in Lebanon. It's time to do it in Gaza, too ," they wrote to President Trump.

The Israeli army "has long since achieved the two objectives that could be achieved by force: dismantling the military formations and the government of Hamas," the Palestinian Islamist movement, according to CIS members.

Hamas no longer poses a strategic threat to Israel, and our experience tells us that Israel has everything it needs to manage its residual terror capabilities, remotely or otherwise.

"The third, and most important, can only be achieved through an agreement: bringing all the hostages home ," they emphasize.

The war was triggered by the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which left 1,219 people, mostly civilians, dead on the Israeli side, according to a count based on official data.

Islamist militants also kidnapped 251 people, 49 of whom remain captive in Gaza. Of these, 27 are believed to have died, according to the Israeli army.

In retaliation, Israel has killed at least 60,430 people in the Gaza Strip , mostly civilians, according to data from the Hamas-ruled territory's Health Ministry, considered reliable by the UN.

In the letter, the former Israeli security officials argue that " Hamas no longer poses a strategic threat to Israel , and our experience tells us that Israel has everything it needs to manage its residual terror capabilities, remotely or otherwise."

"Hunting the last senior Hamas officials can be done later," but the "hostages cannot wait," insist the former heads of Israel's espionage, intelligence, and general security services.

"His credibility with the vast majority of Israelis strengthens his ability to guide Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government in the right direction," the signatories added.

We are hiding behind a lie of our own making. This lie was sold to the Israeli public, and the world has long understood that it doesn't reflect reality.

They emphasize that the objective at this time is "to end the war, bring back the hostages, stop the suffering, and form a regional-international coalition that will help the Palestinian Authority (once reformed) offer the people of Gaza and all Palestinians an alternative to Hamas and its perverse ideology."

"We are on the brink of defeat," former Mossad director Tamir Pardo comments in the video. "What the world is witnessing today is what we have done," he laments, referring to the disastrous humanitarian conditions in the besieged Palestinian territory.

" We are hiding behind a lie of our own making. This lie was sold to the Israeli public, and the world has long understood that it does not reflect reality."

"We have a government that messianic fanatics have taken in a certain irrational direction," opines Yoram Cohen (Shin Bet). "They're a minority (...) but the problem is that the minority controls politics," he adds.