Dozens of soldiers from Company B of the Paratroopers' Reserve Battalion sent a letter Tuesday morning to their battalion commander, Lt. Col. Meir Carmi, titled "I will pursue my enemies and achieve them and I will not return until they are gone."
Central Gaza Strip after the bombings
"We, the soldiers of Company B of the 71st Battalion, were privileged to fight under your command in the battle in the village of Gaza, in the scum of mankind that inflicted on us the horrors of Simchat Torah," the soldiers wrote. "After that, we trained for a long period of time to be worthy of whatever task was assigned to us. We were fortunate to fight the occupation of the accursed Bani Suhila neighborhood, in order to create a ground corridor for the division forces operating deep inside Khan Yunis."
Condemned: "I will persecute my enemies and achieve them, and I will not return until they are finished." Letter from soldiers of the Paratroopers Reserve Battalion, photo: None
"We defend this corridor to this day with strong and effective attacks on enemy compounds," the letter added. "Thank you very much for your courageous, determined and responsible command throughout this period, with an emphasis on your understanding of the situation at a time when the entire fate of the country was in the hands of those who understood the magnitude of the hour."
Leaving no one behind
"We wanted to reflect to you the feelings that arise from many soldiers in the company, in the face of the sever-contact order to which we were recently exposed. By order, the state and the IDF instruct us to be released and return home on the appointed date. This order is inconsistent with the values on which we were educated - as soldiers we were educated not to leave anyone behind. How can we return to our families before the 136 abductees return to their families?"
Condemned: "I will persecute my enemies and achieve them, and I will not return until they are finished." Letter from soldiers of the Paratroopers Reserve Battalion, photo: None
"As fighters in the paratroopers, we engraved on our flag: 'We don't return until we carry out operations.' How will we return before the threat to the residents of the envelope is removed? Before any of the objectives of the fighting were achieved? How can we return to our daily routine as if our mission had been completed, when every mortal person in Rafah can, at the push of a button, send all the children of Ashdod, Rishon LeZion and Tel Aviv to the shelter?"
"Can the regular army alone hold the entire occupied territory?" the soldiers wondered. "Will they alone be able to conquer all the territory that is left and destroy all the scum that worked to do to our brothers and sisters what they did?"
The fighters brought their protest and asked their battalion commander for "a tailwind to make offensive decisions, to intensify the fighting, to tighten the hand on the enemy's neck until victory is achieved," and stressed that they would fight "as long as necessary."
The signatories of the letter identified themselves as fathers of children, students, business owners who left everything and have been asking for more than 100 days to "not let go until victory."
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