Israel's army says it will fire air force reservists who condemned the war

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel’s military said Friday it will fire air force reservists who signed an open letter that condemns the war in Gaza for mainly serving political interests while failing to bring home the hostages.

In a statement to The Associated Press, an army official said there was no room for any individual, including reservists on active duty, “to exploit their military status while simultaneously participating in the fighting,” calling the letter a breach of trust between commanders and subordinates.

The army said it had decided that any active reservist who signed the letter will not be able to continue serving. It did not specify how many people that included or if the firings had begun.

Nearly 1,000 Israeli Air Force reservists and retirees signed the letter, published in Israeli media Thursday, demanding the immediate return of the hostages, even at the cost of ending the fighting.

The letter comes as Israel has ramped up its offensive in Gaza, trying to increase pressure on Hamas to return the 59 hostages still being held. More than half are presumed dead. Israel has imposed a blockade on food, fuel and humanitarian aid that has left civilians facing acute shortages as supplies dwindle. It has pledged to seize large parts of the Palestinian territory and establish a new security corridor through it.

While those who signed the letter did not refuse military service, they are the latest in a growing number of Israeli soldiers speaking out against the prolonged conflict, some saying they saw or did things that crossed ethical lines.

“It’s completely illogical and irresponsible on behalf of the Israeli policy makers … risking the lives of the hostages, risking the lives of more soldiers and risking lives of many, many more innocent Palestinians, while it had a very clear alternative,” Guy Poran, a retired Israeli Air Force pilot who spearheaded the letter told The AP.

He said he's not aware of anyone who signed the letter being fired, and since it was published, it has gained dozens more signatures.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu downplayed the letter on Friday, saying it was written by a “small handful of weeds, operated by foreign-funded (non-governmental organizations) whose sole goal is to overthrow the right-wing government.” He said anyone who encourages refusal will be immediately dismissed.

Soldiers are required to steer clear of politics, and they rarely speak out against the army. After Hamas stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel quickly united behind the war launched against the militant group. Divisions here have grown as the war progresses, but most criticism has focused on the mounting number of soldiers killed and the failure to bring home hostages, not actions in Gaza.

Freed hostages and their families are doing what they can to keep attention on their plight and urge the government to get everyone out.

Agam Berger, a military spotter who was taken hostage and freed in January, plans to join an upcoming March of the Living Ceremony at the sites of former Nazi concentration camps in Poland. Berger, playing a 130-year-old violin that survived the Holocaust, will be accompanied by Daniel Weiss, a resident of Kibbutz Be'eri whose parents were killed by Hamas.

But the war ignited by that attack shows no signs of slowing.

Since Israel ended an eight-week ceasefire last month, it said it will push farther into Gaza until Hamas releases the hostages. More than 1,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire collapsed, according to the United Nations.

The Israeli military on Friday issued an urgent warning to residents in several neighborhoods in northern Gaza, calling on them to evacuate immediately. At least 26 people have been killed and more than 100 others wounded in the last 24 hours, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which doesn't distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Palestinians lined up at a charity kitchen Friday in central Gaza said shortages of food, fuel and other essentials are worsening.

“There is no flour or gas or wood. Everything is expensive and there is no money," said Reem Oweis, a displaced woman from al-Mughraqa in south Gaza, waiting in line for a serving of rice, the only food available.

“I completely rely on charity kitchens. If those charity kitchens close, my children and I will die,” said another displaced woman, Nema Faragallah.

Also this week, Brazil's Embassy in the West Bank said it had requested the immediate release of the body of a 17-year-old Palestinian prisoner who died in Israeli custody.

A representative from Brazil's office in Ramallah, told the AP it was helping the family speed up the process to bring Walid Ahmad's body home. Ahmad had a Brazilian passport.

According to an Israeli doctor who observed the autopsy, starvation was likely the primary cause of his death.

Ahmad had been held for six months without being charged. He was extremely malnourished and also showed signs of inflammation of the colon and scabies, said a report written by Dr. Daniel Solomon, who watched the autopsy conducted by Israeli experts at the request of the boy’s family.

Israel’s prison service said it operates according to the law and all prisoners are given basic rights.

Associated Press writer Fatma Khaled in Cairo contributed.

Khalid Ahmad holds a poster of his 17-year-old son, Waleed, who died in an Israeli prison, that reads in Arabic, "The hero prisoner Martyr, mercy and eternity for our righteous Martyrs," in the West Bank town of Silwad, northeast of Ramallah Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

A woman holds a sign as people take part in a protest demanding the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, April 5,2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

People take part in a protest demanding the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, April 5,2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Supporters of the Pakistani religious group "Jamaat-e-Islami" take part in a rally against Israeli airstrikes and to show solidarity with Palestinian people living in Gaza, in Lahore, Pakistan Friday, April 11, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)

Supporters of the Pakistani religious group "Jamaat-e-Islami" take part in a rally against Israeli airstrikes and to show solidarity with Palestinian people living in Gaza, in Lahore, Pakistan Friday, April 11, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)

Supporters of the Pakistani religious group "Sunni Tehreek" take part in a rally against Israeli airstrikes and to show solidarity with Palestinian people living in Gaza, in Karachi, Pakistan Friday, April 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

Supporters of the Pakistani religious group "Sunni Tehreek" chant slogans on the shipping containers placed by authorities to stop them for marching towards U.S. consulate during a rally against Israeli airstrikes and to show solidarity with Palestinian people living in Gaza, in Karachi, Pakistan Friday, April 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

Palestinians wait for donated food at a distribution center in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, Friday, April 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians wait for donated food at a distribution center in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, Friday, April 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians receive donated food at a distribution center in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, Friday, April 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians wait for donated food at a distribution center in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, Friday, April 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinian children receive donated food at a distribution center in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, Friday, April 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians receive humanitarian aid distributed by UNRWA, the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees in Jabaliya, Gaza Strip on Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians carry the bodies of their relatives who were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Shijaiyah neighborhood, as they brought to the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City on Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians mourn over the bodies of their relatives who were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Shijaiyah neighborhood, as they brought to the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City on Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinian women walk past a poster showing Waleed Ahmad that reads in Arabic, "The hero prisoner Martyr, mercy and eternity for our righteous Martyrs," in the West Bank town of Silwad, northeast of Ramallah, Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

DENVER (AP) — A soldier present at an after-hours nightclub where more than 100 immigrants suspected of being in the U.S. illegally were taken into custody last weekend has been charged with distributing cocaine, court records show.

Staff Sgt. Juan Gabriel Orona-Rodriguez, who is assigned to Fort Carson, an Army post near the illegal club in Colorado Springs, was arrested Wednesday evening, the FBI said in a statement.

Orona-Rodriquez has been charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine and distribution and possession with intent to distribute cocaine, according to an arrest affidavit. It said he allegedly sold cocaine to an undercover agent of the Drug Enforcement Administration days before the raid.

It wasn't immediately known if Orona-Rodriguez — a member of the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team in the 4th Infantry Division — had a lawyer ahead of an expected court appearance Thursday.

The FBI said the arrest followed an investigation by the DEA, the Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division and officials at Fort Carson.

More than 300 law enforcement officers and officials from multiple agencies participated in Sunday’s operation at the nightclub, which had been under investigation for months for alleged activities including drug trafficking, prostitution and “crimes of violence,” said Jonathan Pullen, special agent in charge of the DEA’s Rocky Mountain Division.

Cocaine was among the drugs found, Pullen said at a news conference.

Orona-Rodriquez was one of about 17 active-duty U.S. Army service members who were at the club, known as Warike, when it was raided early Sunday, the affidavit said.

He appears to have held a leadership role in a business that provides armed security at nightclubs, including at Warike, according to the document. However, it did not say whether he was working security there at the time of the raid. It notes that he had been warned by his commanding officer this spring that he could not work for the security company.

Rodriguez received more than a dozen Army awards during his almost nine years in service, including an Army Commendation Medal with combat device, which is earned during a deployment where the soldier was “performing meritoriously under the most arduous combat conditions,” according to Army descriptions of the award.

Of the 17 soldiers who were at the venue at the time of the raid, 16 were patrons and one was working there in a security role, a U.S. official said on the condition of anonymity to provide details not yet made public. Sixteen of the soldiers there were assigned to Fort Carson, the official did not know where the seventeenth was assigned.

Investigators suspect Orona-Rodriguez was getting cocaine from an unidentified Mexican citizen who is “unlawfully present in the United States without admission,” according to the affidavit.

President Donald Trump posted a link to the DEA video of the raid on his social media site, Truth Social. “A big Raid last night on some of the worst people illegally in our Country — Drug Dealers, Murderers, and other Violent Criminals, of all shapes and sizes,” the president wrote.

Associated Press writer Tara Copp in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

In this image taken from video released by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, officers stop a patron from a nightclub where a raid occurred Sunday, April 27, 2025, in Colorado Springs, Colo. (U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration via AP)

In this image taken from video released by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, a law enforcement officer with a weapon drawn is shown at a nightclub where a raid occurred Sunday, April 27, 2025, in Colorado Springs, Colo. (U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration via AP)