Forty-three reservists and former members of an elite Israeli army intelligence unit have condemned alleged "abuses" of Palestinians, in an open letter.
The letter, addressed to Israel's prime minister, armed forces chief and head of military intelligence and distributed to media on Friday, said information gathered by Unit 8200 was used by civilian intelligence agencies to coerce Palestinians uninvolved in militant activity.
The signatories said they would refuse to be party to such acts in future.
"There's no distinction between Palestinians who are, and are not, involved in violence," an English language copy of the letter says.
"Information that is collected and stored harms innocent people. It is used for political persecution and to create divisions within Palestinian society by recruiting collaborators and driving parts of Palestinian society against itself.
"We cannot continue to serve this system in good conscience, denying the rights of millions of people," the letter read.
The signatories, who gave just their ranks and first names or first initials, called on citizens of Israel to speak out against such injustices.
The letter, which comes less than three weeks after the Israeli military's offensive against Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, slammed the "collective punishment of inhabitants" of the coastal territory.
It did not specifically mention the July-August war, which took the lives of more than 2100 Palestinians, most of them civilians, and 73 people on the Israeli side, 67 of them soldiers.
The army on Friday questioned the accuracy and motivation of the accusations, saying it had no record that the "violations" the letter alleged.
"Immediately turning to the press instead of their officers or relevant authorities is suspicious and raises doubts as to the seriousness of their claim."
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