Manpower crisis poses ‘danger’ to Tel Aviv as preparations to resume Gaza genocide continue
The Cradle, March 11, 2025 ─
Reservists and ultra-Orthodox Jews continue to reject government calls to report for duty.
With preparations ongoing to resume the genocidal war in Gaza, the Israeli military is facing a troop shortage that could be worsened by the refusal of reservist soldiers to report for duty, Haaretz reported on 11 March.
“Fr the first time, it seems that there is a danger that some reserve soldiers will not report for service if the return to war is controversial this time,” the Hebrew report reads.
“Even so, in many units, only about half of the soldiers have been reporting recently, and the army is trying to obscure this in various ways,” the paper added.
In recent weeks, the military has been preparing for the possibility that negotiations for a second stage of the ceasefire in Gaza will collapse, causing the fighting against Hamas to resume.
Haaretz added that right-wing ministers who wish to resume the war, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, continue to “express a sweeping indifference to the burden placed on reserve soldiers and the regular army.”
Smotrich and other Israeli leaders in the settler movement prefer to continue the war to achieve their goal of forcibly expelling the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza and rebuilding the Gush Katif Jewish settlement bloc, which was dismantled in 2005.
Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman of Netanyahu’s Likud party said on Tuesday the “only solution for the Gaza Strip is to empty it of Gazans” and called the move “realistic.”
In an interview with Reshet Bet public radio, Silman said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is “committed to the idea of encouraging emigration” and added that she believes “God has sent us the U.S. administration, and it is telling us – it’s time to inherit the land.”
In response, Haaretz commented, “The ministers are simply ignoring this [burden], or perhaps they think that the dubious vision of returning to Gush Katif and transferring to the Palestinians (the real goals of the extreme right in the war) will justify any sacrifice even in the eyes of most fighters.”
The Israeli army is facing an expanded burden, not only due to fighting in Gaza but also due to Israel’s illegal occupation of additional land in Syria and south Lebanon, which is projected to continue indefinitely.
At the same time, young men from Israel’s ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) community continue to ignore draft notices issued by the military.
Ynet reported on Monday that the military is preparing to release 14,000 draft notices for young Haredi men to help alleviate the troop shortfall.
However, only a limited response to the notices is expected. Some 10,000 Haredim have been called for military duty since June, but only 200 responded.
As a result, sixty-five men are under arrest orders, and more than 2,000 are under Order 12, which requires immediate enlistment. Those who fail to report to the draft office within the specified days are subject to a travel ban and may be arrested if discovered by police.
The ultra-Orthodox reject serving in the army, claiming that it is more beneficial for the Israeli state for their men to focus on full-time study of the Jewish holy book, the Torah, in religious seminaries known as yeshivas.
On Tuesday morning, ultra-Orthodox newspapers published notices calling for prayers in response to what was described as the army’s “war against the world of yeshivas.”