Exclusive: Israeli Military Slaps Down Soldier Who Criticized Gaza Failures

An Israeli soldier fighting in the war against Hamas who decried the "endless failures" of his country's leadership was acting "against the IDF's expectations" a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces has told Newsweek.

In a thread posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday, Matan Yaffe who describes himself as "a proud Israeli patriot" in his social media biography, condemned Israel's leadership.

Yaffe said he had signed up to fight because he believed his country needed to be defended following the attack by Hamas militants on October 7 in southern Israel that killed 1,400 people and saw more than 240 taken hostage, according to figures from the Associated Press.

But in his post, Yaffe said that his motivation is "decreasing by the day" and took aim at how "the train of madness of the Israeli government does not stop." He wrote that there were "endless failures and disruptive events created by the government," which have managed to crush his motivation and that of his comrades.

Mentioning Netanyahu by name, he wrote there is "zero leadership, zero responsibility, zero professionalism, zero honesty, zero morality, zero wisdom."

"Even if we defeat Hamas, and I'm sure we will, it won't be thanks to the zeroes in power," he said.

"We need new leadership," he added, without divulging operational details or clarifying where he felt the Israeli military campaign had gone wrong.

However, the IDF said that Yaffe had been speaking out of turn in the post, which as of Tuesday had received more than 337,000 views.

"The actions of the officer who posted this tweet were against the IDF's expectations and guidelines," the spokesperson told Newsweek in a statement.

"It is expected of soldiers and officers of all ranks to act according to IDF values and guidelines, both during routine activity and war time," the statement added, without specifying if any action would be taken.

Yaffe's post spurred a lively thread in which some backed his criticism of Netanyahu's government. One user, Adi Mimram said he should continue fighting "not for the government but for the people," according to a translation of the Hebrew.

However, public policy analyst Noga Arbell wrote: "Matan, there are 360,000 reservists there to win the war. It's better for you and us not to be one of them. Come back home find something less dangerous for all of us to do."

Netanyahu has faced criticism domestically for the security and intelligence failures that preceded the Hamas attacks. On Monday, Haaretz, a left-leaning paper that is frequently critical of the prime minister, again condemned Netanyahu in an op-ed which took aim at his right-wing government.

The paper said that he should have fired rather than suspended his heritage minister Amihai Eliyahu for saying that dropping a nuclear bomb on the Gaza Strip was "an option" in the war against Hamas.

It comes as Israel gave civilians still trapped inside Gaza City, which it has surrounded, a four-hour window to leave on Tuesday. Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas and said that Israel would take on security responsibility for the territory for an indefinite period once it defeats the militants.

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