Lower Thirds: 
0:02	Report by | Tania Krämer
0:32	Ron Feiner | Israeli army reservist
1:29	Yotam Vilk | Israeli army reservist
2:14	Yotam Vilk | Israeli army reservist
3:06	Ron Feiner | Israeli army reservist

((info:
Soldiers everywhere are expected required to steer clear of politics. But in Israel some However, some Israeli reservists have spoken out against the war in Gaza and are refusing to serve there. Speaking out against the army is not usually well received in Israel. Divisions over the war in Gaza in Israel have grown, not over the death toll of over 57 000 Palestinians killed or the humanitarian situation in Gaza, but over the failure to bring all the remaining hostages home and the mounting number of soldiers killed. DW reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment. Tania Krämer met two former reservists who are refusing to serve.))

Script:

Israelis protest near the border with Gaza last month - calling for an end to the war, and the return of the hostages. 

Among them, Ron Feiner, an Israel Defense Forces combat officer and reservist. He served for 270 days since the war in Gaza began - as a platoon commander in southern Lebanon.
 After the government broke a ceasefire in Gaza in March, Feiner says he decided not to serve any more.

00:31+++Ron Feiner, former reservist, English++++ 
“This decision, it was clear that the goal of the war is not to bring back the hostages and bring security and the long term ceasefire that will bring us a long term, maybe in negotiations, in peace. And it was clear that the goal of the war is to conquer Gaza or for the political survival of the government.”
Yotam Vilk, an officer in the armored corps, also opposes what the government has been is doing in Gaza. 
He went to southern Israel on October 7 and, as a volunteer, commanded a tank against the Hamas-led attacks that took place that day. He later served as a soldier in two tours, in Gaza and its border area. 
But last October he was among some 200 soldiers who signed a letter  saying they would stop fighting if the government didn’t secure a ceasefire to bring the hostages home and end the war.

01:28+++Yotam Vilk, former reservist, ENGLISH+++ 
“We were told that there is that there are certain goals that we can achieve, that the military force will be used to some extent that we will have, um, that we have, uh, goals that are releasing the hostages, to defeat Hamas and find a different solution. And, and actually, at this point, I really do not understand why why, why are we continuing (the show? inaudible) in Gaza. I really do not know.”

Vilk says it is a complicated situation, but he felt that there has been a sense of impunity among Israeli soldiers when it comes to civilian deaths in Gaza. 

02:13+++Yotam Vilk, former reservist, ENGLISH+++
“One of the problems now, a lot of them, that there is no accountability towards the action that soldiers do. So it doesn't really matter if you, how long did you, how much of of a of validation did you have on the fact that this person was indeed a terrorist? It doesn't really matter because there is no accountability. You won't hear about, the Israeli, authorities looking to on anything concerning death of Palestinians.”

Feiner was also outraged by army practices while finding and destroying Hezbollah weapons in villages in southern Lebanon. He says some villagers' houses were destroyed for no real reason.

03:05+++Ron Feiner, former reservist, ENGLISH+++
So we had also to blow up like houses that had no military equipments in them. And it is not a specific command from my commander. This is a part of the large war, everybody does it. And and for me it was also, yes, one one thing that made my decision clearer that we should stop it.”

Feiner is one of the few reservists to be sentenced to 25 days in a military prison for refusing to serve. 
Both say Israel has the right to defend itself. Some are calling them traitors for refusing to serve any longer. But others support them for following their conscience.  

End: 3:52