Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant issued his orders to the Israeli army to call back on duty the reservists released in the last few years due to a shortage of troops.
The move was justified in a statement issued by Gallant indicating that “in the light of the situation assessment and the scale of activity of regular and reserve forces and as part of the army’s plan to increase the number of soldiers in service.”
According to the statement Israel’s occupation army has already started contacting exempted reservists in what was described as “vital units” and are still within the eligible age for service.
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Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said the target is to reenlist 15,000 previously excused reservists.
According to The Times of Israel, those who will be reenlisted “are those who were released from service due to personnel reductions and are younger than the exemption age, which is 40 for most soldiers, 45 for officers, and 49 for specialists.”
10,000 Additional Soldiers
The Israeli Defense Minister announced in July that the Israeli army urgently needs 10,000 additional soldiers amid the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
“The army needs 10,000 more soldiers immediately,” Gallant stated, according to Army Radio, during a session of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
He mentioned that the army could recruit 4,800 soldiers from ultra-Orthodox males.
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In May of this year, Israel’s Supreme Court unanimously ruled that ultra-Orthodox Jews must be subject to the military draft, ending decades of their exemption from service.
Israel’s Defense Minister and the military agreed in July to begin drafting ultra-Orthodox Jews in August, The Jerusalem Post reported then.
The military draft instigated violent clashes between Israeli police and ultra-Orthodox Jews who took to the streets to vehemently oppose the move.
Since 2017, successive Israeli governments have struggled to reach a consensus on Haredi conscription after the Supreme Court invalidated a 2015 law that exempted them from military service, citing a violation of the “principle of equality.”
The Times of Israel reported at the time that an estimated 67,000 Haredi males are eligible for military service.
(PC, Anadolu)
