Israeli Soldier Gives Brutal Assessment of Gaza Fighting—'Endless Failures'

An Israeli soldier has given a damning assessment of his country's political leadership as it conducts its war against Hamas.

The comments by Matan Yaffe on X, formerly Twitter, come as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Monday its fighter jets had struck 450 Hamas targets in Gaza and troops seized a militant compound in the past 24 hours, Reuters reported.

Health officials in Gaza have said that as of Monday, more than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes that followed Hamas's surprise attack on southern Israel on October 7, the Associated Press reported. At least 1,400 people in Israel were killed, and more than 240 hostages seized in Hamas's attack.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas and has said its forces have encircled Gaza City as pressure grows for it to avoid civilian casualties after refusing a ceasefire until the hostages are released.

In his biography on X, Taffe describes himself as a father of five sons as well as "a proud Israeli patriot." He says his country "can and should be the best country in the world."

The X thread he posted on Sunday did not reveal specific operational details about shortcomings in Israel's conduct in the war or opposition to the aims of fighting Hamas but did condemn the actions of the Israeli government and its leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu has faced criticism in Israel for the failures that preceded the Hamas attack, and he issued a rare apology last week after assigning sole responsibility for the shortcomings to Israel's intelligence and security services.

Taffe said he had volunteered to fight and has been serving as a captain because after the Hamas attack on October 7, "it was clear to me that I was going to fight for the idea called the State of Israel," which he believed in his "whole life."

Now, he says his motivation "is decreasing by the day."

He said that over the last few weeks, he had "suppressed" what he saw happening in his country, "but unfortunately, the train of madness of the Israeli government does not stop."

He lamented that "disgrace that pursues disgrace," according to a translation of the thread written in Hebrew.

He describes how there are "endless failures and disruptive events created by the government, each of which alone is maddening" and that these have combined to "crush the motivation" of him and his fellow fighters.

"I can tell you never have I experienced a bigger crisis of confidence while fighting, and it has nothing to do with the enemy—it's all us," his post says.

Mentioning Netanyahu by name, his post decries how 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, but thanks to the people in the field who go out to sacrifice their lives even though they don't trust the government," Taffe wrote, concluding "we need new leadership."

Newsweek reached out to Netanyhu's office and the IDF for comment.

His post provoked some messages of support for his critique of the Israeli government. Amir Tibon, a correspondent for the left-leaning newspaper Haaretz, which has been critical of Netanyahu, wrote, "We will not allow the failed, corrupt and wretched government to avoid responsibility."