The Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Monday that Zamir, who recently took command of the Israeli army, informed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government that "military strategies alone cannot achieve all the goals in Gaza, especially in the absence of a complementary diplomatic track."
In recent months, the Israeli army has revealed a shortage of regular soldiers due to the failure to recruit religious Jews (Haredim) and the reluctance of reserve soldiers to serve for various reasons, primarily fatigue from the length of the war, according to Israeli media.
The newspaper quoted an unnamed senior Israeli military official as saying, "Zamir is not distorting the facts, but rather calling on the leadership to abandon some of its illusions." It continued, "However, a complete reoccupation of Gaza could take many months, perhaps years, and would require the reactivation of tens of thousands of reserve soldiers."
She added, "Current reserve soldier participation rates in combat units range between 60% and 70%, according to the army, figures that were fully communicated to Netanyahu and senior ministers."
A Haaretz investigation revealed last March that, with the decline in response to calls for reserve duty in the Israeli army, some units have resorted to social media advertisements to recruit individuals.
For its part, the Israeli army radio reported on Monday that approximately 170 graduates of the Military Intelligence Talpiot program signed a letter demanding the release of detainees by ending the war, without calling for refusal to serve in the reserve.
This comes as calls for the return of Israeli captives in Gaza, even at the expense of halting the war, gain momentum among the Israeli army's reserve forces, posing a challenge to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Army Commander Eyal Zamir.