OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 26 September 2003 — A group of reserve air force pilots in Israel elicited widespread condemnation yesterday for their refusal to carry out airstrikes in Palestinian areas, but their unprecedented protest also set off an emotional debate on the ethics of targeted killings, one of Israel’s main tools in its war on militants.

Pilots are held in the highest regard in Israel and their views carry considerable weight, since their skill and audacity are seen as key to Israel’s survival. Several hundred Israelis have refused to serve in the West Bank and Gaza in recent years and there have been protests such as last weekend’s Tel Aviv rally in which several thousand called for ending the occupation of the areas.

But Israelis generally support the military’s actions as needed to curb terror attacks, and no major anti-war movement has emerged. Wednesday’s signed declaration condemning the airstrikes shook the nation and also raised new questions about the limits of protest in the military.

The air force commander, Maj. Gen. Dan Halutz, said the signatories would be punished - possibly jailed - and accused them of playing politics, rather than grappling with genuine moral dilemmas.

The group of 27 is informally led by Brig. Gen. Yiftah Spector, a highly decorated retired pilot who, according to Israeli media reports, participated in the bombing of the Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981. Nine of the pilots are still on active duty.

In their petition, the pilots said airstrikes on crowded Palestinian areas are “illegal and immoral.” They also condemn Israel’s continued occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, saying it corrupts Israeli society.

In the past three years of fighting, Israeli pilots have carried out hundreds of airstrikes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, targeting Palestinian police installations and weapons workshops of militants.

The most controversial of the airstrikes involve targeted killings, in which helicopters - and sometimes warplanes - fire rockets and bombs at cars and homes of Palestinian militants.

In the past three years, some 140 wanted men have been killed in targeted raids, not all of them airstrikes, according to Palestinian medical officials, though the figure also includes those killed resisting arrest. More than 100 bystanders have also died, according to the medical officials.

The Israeli public, traumatized by a Palestinian suicide bombing campaign that has killed hundreds of civilians since September 2000, largely supports the targeted killings, widely referred to in Hebrew as “liquidations.”

The rebel pilots were lambasted yesterday in commentary in newspapers and radio talk shows. Critics accused the pilots of being immature, naive or having a secret political agenda. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was quoted as saying the protest was a “grave matter” and would be dealt with swiftly. Former Israeli President Ezer Weizman, who commanded the Israeli Air Force in the 1960s, said the pilots’ stance was immoral, and belittled their apparent idealism as a “holier than thou attitude.”

Veteran journalist Dan Margalit wrote in a front-page commentary in the Ma’ariv daily that the pilots abused their exalted standing. The letter of protest marked the first time pilots have come out openly against air force policy. In the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, some pilots expressed reservations about bombing cities and refugee camps, but did not go public.

Halutz, the air force commander, played down the importance of the protest, saying the pilots were only a handful among thousands. However, some warned the protest could spread because of growing unease in the armed forces over military strikes that have failed to stop terror attacks.

“Today, in light of pointless military operations ... people are beginning to ask questions,” wrote military commentator Alex Fishman in the Yediot Ahronot daily. “And these (the pilots) are the very best people we have. We can ground them, and we can lock them up, but we cannot ignore the questions they ask.”

Yediot said dozens of Apache helicopter pilots, who carry out the bulk of the airstrikes, have met with their wing commander to express their concerns.

One participant said he was not convinced of the justice of his missions, Yediot said, and others complained that they were given bad intelligence that could endanger civilians.

The rebel pilots could not be reached for comment yesterday, but Lt. Col. Zeev Rotem, a retired combat navigator speaking on their behalf, said the norms of the air force have changed in recent years.

“Today, we attack places where there are civilians, women and children, with the prior knowledge that ... there is a great chance they will be killed,” Rotem told Israel Radio. The protest, he said, is a desperate attempt “to make the army, the government and the citizens ... stop this crazy cycle that has hijacked this country.”