After brief hiccup, Knesset committee okays extending IDF reservist call-up

The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee has passed an extension of an emergency military call-up order by an 8 to 7 vote, a week after the measure was pulled off the agenda due to a lack of coalition support, a Knesset spokesperson says.

The order, replacing one that expired in May, allows the army to draft up to 430,000 reservists as it seeks to expand fighting in Gaza, though far fewer are expected to actually be called up. The order expires on September 4, unlike previous orders, which were good for several months at a time.

The government was forced to call off a planned vote on the measure last week due to the absence of the committee’s recently ousted chair, Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, and New Hope MK Mishel Buskila.

According to the Walla news site, the vote took place at the Defense Ministry’s Tel Aviv headquarters rather than in the Knesset.

The authorization of the IDF to draft reservists with emergency call-up orders has been brought for government approval every few months since the beginning of the war in October 2023. In non-emergency times, the IDF can only call up reservists a long time in advance rather than at short notice, and cannot call them up for a large number of days.