IDF chief: Army must grow, hopes to encourage more Haredi enlistment

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi again stresses that the military needs to be larger, as reserve soldiers — who have served multiple stints in Gaza, on the northern border, and now in southern Lebanon — have raised their frustrations that ultra-Orthodox men are largely not being drafted.

“To all the reservists, I understand the costs — family, employment — and the burden. Now we need solutions. First, we will maintain support. For those who come [to reserve duty], we need to be there, we need to provide solutions, recognition and compensation, for a student or someone whose business has been heavily impacted,” Halevi says to officers during a visit to the northern border.

“The IDF needs to be larger, both in the standing army and reserves, which is why we’re building up more forces,” he continues.

“There’s a lot of public discussion about the Haredim. On Monday, I visited injured soldiers… I met a soldier from the Givati Brigade who was injured in Rafah, he took a bullet to the upper part of his thigh, not a pleasant injury, but he’ll be okay. He’s Haredi, from Bnei Brak. He wanted to enlist, even though his family didn’t support him initially, but once he started, they embraced him with open arms. They were with him even before he was injured and, of course, after he was injured. And I’m telling you, our question is how we can make many more like him,” Halevi says.

“This is what’s right socially, and I think that when we manage to grow from this… from realizing the need for a larger IDF, it could also bring a very positive social change,” he adds.