More from the article ...

... More than 18 months since the start of the war in Gaza, Israel's onslaught on the ravaged Palestinian enclave shows no sign of relenting.

Yuval Ben-Ari, however, has decided his war is over.

"The Gaza Strip is a field of ruins, there's nothing left, and yet the army is planning new operations with no clear objective," the 40-year-old reservist told Israel's Radio Haifa in an interview earlier this month.

Like tens of thousands of fellow Israelis, Ben-Ari quickly answered a call-up to fight in the wake of the Hamas-led October 7 attack, the deadliest ever on Israeli soil. He served with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in southern Gaza and in the Netzarim Corridor that splits the enclave down the middle, as well as taking part in Israeli manoeuvres in southern Lebanon during clashes with Hezbollah.

But more than 500 days into the fighting, Ben-Ari wants no further part in military operations that he says have lost sight of the war's primary objectives -- notably the release of the last hostages held in Gaza by Hamas.

"It seems to me that the IDF is carrying out pointless actions that have nothing to do with the return of the hostages," he added. "I don't want to be a part of this "--and I'm not the only one."

His words echo the increasingly outspoken criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government since its decision last month to shatter a ceasefire that had stopped the bloodshed in Gaza and enabled the release of 33 Israeli hostages. ...