‘Hamas has Defeated Us’ – Ret. Israeli Maj. Gen. Brik Speaks of ‘Collective Suicide’

Israeli Major General Itzhak Brick and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (Image: Palestine Chronicle)

Retired Israeli Major General Itzhak Brik has issued a scathing assessment of Israel’s military and political leadership, warning that the country is on the verge of “collective suicide” and that the army has effectively been defeated by Hamas in Gaza.

In a blistering op-ed published on Sunday in the Israeli newspaper Maariv, Brik—who previously served as IDF Ombudsman for Soldiers’ Complaints—wrote that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are “left behind, without a response to future wars,” and are “preparing itself for the wars of the past, not the wars of the future.”

Brik, a longtime critic of Israel’s military doctrine, accused the Israeli government of leading the country into a disastrous path.

“With a political and military echelon of this type, there is no need for external enemies; they will bring disaster upon us in their stupidity,” he warned.

“We may soon reach a point of no return, and the only thing left for us to do is pray to our God to come to our aid, and then we will all become messiahs who pray for miracles.”

The retired general directly addressed the ongoing war on Gaza, now entering its twentieth month, dismissing official Israeli claims of progress.

Referring to the latest military campaign dubbed Operation Gideon’s Chariots, Brik wrote, “Just as the political and military echelons lied to the public throughout the war, declaring back and forth that it was a matter of days until Hamas would surrender… The same lies of the political and military echelons continue even now.”

He added: “Not a day goes by without our forces being killed or wounded… We will understand what a terrible tragedy this group and their friends, who have gone off the rails and are acting with shocking irresponsibility and are below all criticism, are bringing the people of Israel to.”

Perhaps the most devastating part of Brik’s critique came in his stark admission of defeat: “An army that held its own as the strongest in the Middle East was defeated by Hamas, a powerful blow to Israel’s deterrence against its enemies, and this will encourage our enemies around our borders to prepare themselves for war against us.”

Brik argues that Israel’s strategic choices—particularly its overreliance on air power and neglect of ground forces and missile technology—have left the military unprepared for modern warfare.

He pointed to Ukraine’s recent drone strikes on Russian air bases as a paradigm shift in global military doctrine, while Israel continues to invest billions in outdated technologies.

“Even after all the lessons were learned during the ‘Iron Swords’ war, which proved that it is impossible to win wars with planes alone, we still continue to invest forty billion dollars in purchasing planes,” Brik wrote, warning that “manned aircraft are losing their place to swarms of unmanned aerial vehicles.”

He noted that China now produces up to 700,000 attack drones a month, while Israel remains unprepared for similar technological shifts. “The air revolution is already here,” Brik stated.

In the Gaza Strip, he said, Israel’s military strategy has largely failed. “The IDF is almost unable to harm Hamas, but mainly uninvolved Gazan residents who are mainly harmed by the air force’s bombings,” Brik wrote, adding that Hamas fighters operate freely in tunnels while Israeli forces continue to suffer mounting casualties.

“In the meantime, the kidnapped will die in the tunnels and many more of our soldiers will be wounded and killed.”

The former general also warned of imminent financial collapse. “The Ministry of Finance announces that at this rate, within a few weeks, the state budget will run out… and we have not yet reached the middle of the year.”

Brik concluded with a dire forecast: “They are leading the people of Israel to collective suicide.”