Amid troop shortage, IDF begins calling up 15,000 previously released reservists
Army cancels exemptions due to manpower shortage caused by hostilities in Gaza and the north. Edelstein welcomes move, calls on IDF to join in drafting Haredi enlistment bill
Amid a persistent manpower shortage caused by the ongoing war in Gaza, the defense establishment has started recalling to duty some 15,000 previously exempted reservists.
In a joint statement on Monday, the Israel Defense Forces and Defense Ministry explained that the decision to cancel the soldiers’ demobilization followed a new assessment of “the scope of the activities of the standing army and reserve forces, and as part of a process planned by the IDF to increase the reserve of service members.”
The IDF said that it has already begun to call up relevant Israelis who served in critical roles, and those who are fit to return to serve as reservists will do so “according to the operational need.”
The reservists set to be recalled to duty are those who were released from service due to the army closing units or reducing manpower in certain units, and who are younger than the exemption age, which is 40 for most soldiers, 45 for officers, and 49 for specialists.
Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein said that he welcomed the move “even if the implementation took nine months and a push in the form of a bill backed by the members” of his committee.
Last month, the veteran Likud lawmaker submitted a bill to cancel discharges granted to IDF reservists under the exemption age for reserve military service, under which reservists would be recalled to duty unless they are granted a new exemption after a case-by-case examination.
According to Channel 12, around 170,000 such exemptions have been granted over the past 10 years. National broadcaster Kan has reported that around 50,000 people listed as eligible for frontline service have not been called up in the wake of October 7.
“This is an important step in meeting the IDF’s manpower needs. The next step is a real and effective Enlistment Law [and] I call on the IDF and the Defense Ministry to join in its drafting, so that we don’t have to wait another nine months to correct years of mistakes,” Edelstein continued — expressing apparent frustration with the level of input provided by the defense establishment as his committee wrestles with a bill regulating the enlistment of ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students.
“We need soldiers here and now,” he added.
The IDF is suffering manpower shortages caused by the hostilities on the northern border and the ongoing war in Gaza, which began on October 7, when Hamas-led terrorists rampaged through southern communities, slaughtering 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
In June, Edelstein halted efforts to extend a temporary measure raising the exemption age for reserve military service from 40 to 41 for soldiers and from 45 to 46 for officers for several additional months, stating that he would allow it to pass without “broad consensus.”
In another effort to alleviate manpower shortages, the government last month voted to back a bill lengthening mandatory service for male IDF soldiers to three years.
According to the proposed legislation, for the next five years, male soldiers will serve 36 months, meaning the order will effectively cover a period of eight years.
At the same time, the IDF has begun slowly calling up members of the ultra-Orthodox community in the wake of a High Court of Justice ruling that there is no legal basis for excluding Haredi men from the military draft.
According to the IDF, only 48 out of 900 Haredi men who received call-up notices last month showed up at the army’s induction center.
Edelstein has been critical of how this effort has been carried out, accusing the government of having “no plan” for the enlistment of ultra-Orthodox Jews during a Knesset hearing last month.
“I don’t understand why it was so urgent to announce yesterday that thousands of conscription orders had been issued for the ultra-Orthodox, when today it turns out that there is no plan and no numbers,” he said at the time, adding that he expected the IDF “to come with a detailed plan and present exact numbers.”
Testifying before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee earlier this month, the head of the IDF Personnel Directorate’s Planning and Personnel Management Division told lawmakers that the low turnout among ultra-Orthodox men mobilized for military service in recent weeks may be due in part to recent violent anti-draft riots, which have frightened away potential recruits.
