In what "The New York Times" called, 'the first public collective refusal by intelligence officers rather than combat troops' to serve, on September 12, 43 veteran reserve army mid-ranking officers and soldiers (33 soldiers and 10 officers, including a major and two captains, mostly in their late 20s and 30s) in the IDF's top intelligence electronic surveillance corps, Unit 8200, Israel's equivalent to the NSA, published a letter in Israel's most widely read newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, directed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, Moshe Ya'alon and Aviv Kochavi, the head of Military Intelligence, in which they registered their refusal to participate, on the grounds of conscience, in any action designed to "harm the Palestinian population in the West Bank." It took roughly a year to gather all of the signatures. and its publication was delayed by the war in Gaza until hostilities ceased in order not to be seen as attacking the army in wartime. According to the highest-ranking signatory, many other members of Unit 8200 support their stand, but did not add their names for fear of reactions and the personal price their involvement would exact. 10 of the 43 belonged to the "circle of control" in the unit. The 43 decried the use of espionage to set up airstrikes that have inflicted casualties among civilians. The letter, originally written before the recent 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, was initially reported to be unrelated to it, but does mention 'the collective punishment of residents in Gaza,', that war being, according to one of the group, 'just another chapter in this cycle of violence,' and calls on the Israeli public to speak up against injustices. While the incidents they allude to have no relation to Operation Protective Edge, in which none participated, several avoided service during the 2014 war in Gaza by refusing to answer a call to do reserve duty, employing a variety of excuses. In the light of that war, the refuseniks said they would refuse to enlist if called upon to serve in the reserve, and none had served during the July–August Gaza war. In their view, espionage that probed for information of sexual preferences or health problems that might prove useful in turning people into informants for Israel, invaded the privacy of a people under occupation, sought to exercise control over innocent Palestinian civilians, turn people into collaborators and stir divisiveness and dissension among Palestinians in the West Bank. One of the undersigned said that, while affirming their commitment to continue gathering intelligence on enemy states, they found themselves morally obliged not engage in intelligence gathering whose 'main objective is to maintain the military rule in the West Bank'.