Israel faces another soldier crisis

JerusalemThe Israeli army has been repeating the same message for months, but now the tone is more alarming. It warns that it is short of at least 12,000 soldiers, a figure that could quickly grow to 17,000 troops in the coming months. In a country where military service is almost an identity pillar, the problem is no longer just military: it is political and social. The crisis comes after more than two years of sustained war on multiple fronts such as Gaza, Lebanon, the West Bank, Syria and Iran, with a system heavily dependent on reservists, which is showing increasing signs of exhaustion.The Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, has warned the government several times that the army needs soldiers “immediately”, but in recent days has called to extend compulsory military service for men again to thirty-six months, after it was reduced to thirty months in 2024. A few days after Zamir's call, General Shay Tayeb, head of army personnel planning, has detailed that the soldier deficit “will increase considerably” and that if it is currently 12,000 soldiers, it could reach 17,000. The concern within the army is particularly great because in January 2027 the first cohort affected by this reduction in service will be demobilized. This could mean the departure of about 4,000 soldiers at once and further exacerbate the staff shortage.“This war on seven fronts [Gaza, Lebanon, the West Bank, Syria, the Houthis, pro-Iranian militias in Iraq, and Iran] has a direct impact on our soldiers. We need to extend compulsory military service again from 30 to 36 months –Ephraim Lapid, an Israeli military analyst and former army spokesperson, explains to ARA–. Despite everything, morale remains high because the population understands the threats Israel faces. Israeli society's support remains solid”.One of the most pressing issues is the strain on reservists: approximately 70% of the total military force and nearly half of some combat units are made up of reservists. Initially, the army planned to mobilize them for about 55 days during 2026. The reality has been very different. After the war against Iran, many soldiers already accumulate between 80 and 100 days of service. In this context, the army has warned that the reservist system could "collapse" if legislation is not approved to resolve the staff shortage.

After more than two years of continuous military operations, this model shows clear signs of exhaustion. The main problems detected by experts are the overload of repeated mobilizations, psychological fatigue, and an increase in cases of post-traumatic stress disorder. In fact, some surveys from last year already placed these cases at around 12% of reservists.Recruitment of orthodox

This wear and tear on the reservist system connects directly to another of the major sources of structural tension: the recruitment of the ultra-Orthodox community. For decades, tens of thousands of full-time students at yeshivas, the Jewish religious schools dedicated to the study of the Torah and the Talmud, have been exempt from military service. But the war and the shortage of soldiers have turned this historic privilege into one of the deepest fractures in Israeli politics and society.“There continues to be an unjustified refusal by the ultra-Orthodox sector to serve in the army, and this affects the morale of the majority of Israelis. The impact will eventually fall on the reservists – summarizes Lapid–. How long can our country sustain this anomalous behavior? Time will tell. In any case, the current wars will not lose intensity”.

Currently, the Israeli government is trying to pass a new law that, in theory, would increase the military enlistment of the ultra-Orthodox community, but which in practice maintains broad exemptions. The effort to incorporate these young people intensified after the Supreme Court, in June 2024, determined that there was no legal basis to maintain the exemptions.According to the latest army data, around 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men between 18 and 24 years old could be recruited, but have not enlisted. During the first half of the 2025-2026 recruitment period, only about 1,850 ultra-Orthodox men joined the army. By the end of the year, the army believes that around 3,000 ultra-Orthodox soldiers will be recruited, a record figure, but still far from the target of 4,800 annually.The different calls to incorporate more soldiers come as Parliament has begun processing a preliminary proposal to dissolve itself this week. It was driven by the ultra-Orthodox party United Torah Judaism, which supports Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government, after he failed to secure enough support to pass the military exemption law for this community and asked to postpone it until after the elections, according to Israeli media. The proposal has already passed the first vote and will now have to go through three more votes before an early election can be formally called.