Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir hand-delivered a secret memo to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu weeks before the IDF’s new military offensive in the Gaza Strip, in which he warned that the operation lacked a “political endgame” and risked the lives of both hostages and soldiers, according to a Sunday report.
“IDF fighters are returning to the same places without a political purpose,” the letter read, Channel 13 reported, a day before Netanyahu is set to meet with US President Donald Trump in Washington to discuss a US proposal for ending the war.
“The operational actions endanger the hostages — whose condition is deteriorating,” Zamir was said to have written, stressing that “every operation needs a political endgame.”
“There is no political endgame” in Gaza City, he wrote, asserting that Israel “refuses to find an alternative to Hamas in the Gaza Strip.”
An IDF spokesperson confirmed the existence of the document to Channel 13, calling it “an extremely sensitive and secret” memo that was delivered directly to Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz, and declined to comment on its contents.
“Leaking its contents to unauthorized parties constitutes a breach of state security,” the spokesperson warned.
Parents of IDF soldiers serving in Gaza reacted angrily to the report, telling Channel 13 that they were “appalled” by it.
IDF soldiers seen operating in Gaza City in a picture released for publication on September 24, 2025 (Israel Defense Forces)
“According to the chief of staff himself, he is sending our children to die and be wounded without a purpose. Our children’s lives are not expendable.”
“This is the time for the parents of the fighters to stand up and stop this pointless war,” they fumed.
The Democrats chair Yair Golan also reacted to the report, charging that Netanyahu was “keeping Hamas in power because that’s what keeps him in power.”
“This is a government that is neither Jewish nor Zionist,” wrote Golan, himself a former deputy chief of staff. “It is a government of blood and malice.”
The incident was not the first time that Zamir has clashed with the political leadership over its plans to capture Gaza City, highlighting the growing rift between the military and the country’s leadership.
From L-R: IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Defense Minister Israel Katz attend a Rosh Hashanah toast, in Tel Aviv, September 22, 2025. (GPO/Haim Zach)
In August, he was reported to have warned the government that the operation in Gaza City would likely drag Israel into a full-fledged occupation of the Strip. This, he warned, would constitute a “trap” for the IDF, and would endanger the hostages still held by terror groups in the Strip while simultaneously exhausting the army.
Then, earlier this month, Channel 13 reported that the chief of staff had upbraided Netanyahu and assembled lawmakers, accusing them of only now deciding to seriously tackle the Hamas terror group as justification to widen the military campaign and shirk a possible hostage release deal.
“Good morning, sunshine,” Zamir was said to have told the high-level security cabinet with sarcastic exasperation. “You [were] the cabinet on October 7. Now you remember to talk about defeating Hamas? Where were you on the 7th? The 8th? The 9th? Now you remember, after two years?”
Zamir has also clashed with Katz on other, unrelated issues, including an incident in which Katz accused the military chief of making senior appointments without consulting him first. The dispute continued for several days, until the two announced that they had reached an understanding and Katz approved almost all of Zamir’s picks, bar two.
