JERUSALEM: Hundreds of retired Israeli security officials including former heads of intelligence agencies have urged US President Donald Trump to pressure their own government to end the war in Gaza.

“It is our professional judgment that Hamas no longer poses a strategic threat to Israel,” the former officials wrote in an open letter shared with the media on Monday.

“At first this war was a just war, a defensive war, but when we achieved all military objectives, this war ceased to be a just war,” said Ami Ayalon, former director of the Shin Bet security service.

The war, nearing its 23rd month, “is leading the State of Israel to lose its security and identity,” Ayalon warned in a video released to accompany the letter.

Signed by 550 people, including former chiefs of Shin Bet and the Mossad spy agency, the letter called on Trump to “steer” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu toward a ceasefire.

Israel launched its military operation in the Gaza Strip in response to the deadly October 7, 2023 attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas.

In recent weeks Israel has come under increasing international pressure to agree a ceasefire that could Israeli hostages released from Gaza and UN agencies distribute humanitarian aid.

But some in Israel, including ministers in Netanyahu’s coalition government, are instead pushing for Israeli forces to push on and for Gaza to be occupied in whole or in part.

The letter was signed by three former Mossad heads: Tamir Pardo, Efraim Halevy and Danny Yatom.

Other signatories include five former heads of Shin Bet – Ayalon as well as Nadav Argaman, Yoram Cohen, Yaakov Peri and Carmi Gilon – and three former military chiefs of staff, including former prime minister Ehud Barak, former defense minister Moshe Yaalon and Dan Halutz.

The letter argued that the Israeli military “has long accomplished the two objectives that could be achieved by force: dismantling Hamas’s military formations and governance.”

“The third, and most important, can only be achieved through a deal: bringing all the hostages home,” it added.

“Chasing remaining senior Hamas operatives can be done later,” the letter said.

In the letter, the former officials tell Trump that he has credibility with the majority of Israelis and can put pressure on Netanyahu to end the war and return the hostages.

After a ceasefire, the signatories argue, Trump could force a regional coalition to support a reformed Palestinian Authority to take charge of Gaza as an alternative to Hamas rule.