JERUSALEM — A group of some 600 retired Israeli security officials, including former heads of intelligence agencies, have written to US President Donald Trump to pressure Israel to immediately end the war in Gaza.

"It is our professional judgement that Hamas no longer poses a strategic threat to Israel," the officials said.

"Your credibility with the vast majority of Israelis augments your ability to steer Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu and his government in the right direction: End the war, return the hostages, stop the suffering," they wrote.

Their appeal comes amid reports that Netanyahu is pushing to expand military operations in Gaza as indirect ceasefire talks with Hamas have stalled.

Israel launched a devastating war in Gaza following Hamas's attack in southern Israel on 7 October 2023 in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken into Gaza as hostages.

More than 60,000 people have been killed as a result of Israel's military campaign in Gaza since then, the Hamas-run health ministry says.

The territory is also experiencing mass deprivation as a result of heavy restrictions imposed by Israel on what is allowed into Gaza. The ministry says 180 people, including 93 children, have died from malnutrition since the start of the war.

UN-backed agencies have said the "worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out" in Gaza.

The latest intervention by the top former Israeli officials came after videos of two emaciated Israeli hostages were released by Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants.

The videos were widely condemned by Israeli and Western leaders.

After the videos were released, Netanyahu spoke with the two hostage families, telling them that efforts to return all the hostages "will continue constantly and relentlessly".

But an Israeli official - widely quoted by local media - said Netanyahu was working to free the hostages through "the military defeat of Hamas".

The possibility of a new escalation in Gaza may further anger Israel's allies which have been pushing for an immediate ceasefire as reports of Palestinians dying from starvation or malnutrition cause shock around the world.

The main group supporting hostages' families condemned the idea of a new military offensive saying: "Netanyahu is leading Israel and the hostages to doom."

That view was pointedly made in the letter to Trump by former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo, former Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon, former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and former Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon among others.

"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 Ayalon.

The former top leaders head the Commanders for Israel's Security (CIS) group, which has urged the government in the past to focus on securing the return of the hostages.

"Stop the Gaza War! On behalf of CIS, Israel's largest group of former IDF generals and Mossad, Shin Bet, Police, and Diplomatic Corps equivalents, we urge you to end the Gaza war. You did it in Lebanon. Time to do it in Gaza as well," they wrote to the US president.

Israel has faced growing international isolation, as the widespread destruction in Gaza and the suffering of Palestinians spark outrage.

Polls around the world suggest that public opinion is increasingly negative about Israel, which is putting pressure on Western leaders to act.

But it is not clear what pressure, if any, Trump will choose to exert on the Israeli prime minister.

The US president has consistently backed his ally, even though he publicly acknowledged last week that there was "real starvation" in Gaza after Netanyahu insisted there was no such thing. — BBC