The Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth quoted an army battalion commander as saying on Tuesday: "We have a shortage of more than 10,000 soldiers killed or wounded, and several thousand more who repeatedly enter the cycle of post-traumatic stress disorder."
Data from the Israeli military showed that the number of soldiers killed since the beginning of the war has reached 861, including 419 killed in the ground battles in the Gaza Strip that began on October 27, 2023.
Israel imposes strict military censorship on local media regarding human and material losses resulting from Palestinian factions' strikes, with the aim of maintaining public morale.
The newspaper explained that the occupation army continues to call up reserve soldiers for extended periods despite religious demands to exempt religious school students from military service, leading to an accumulation of erosion within the army's ranks.
She added that the promise of only two and a half months of service per year had been broken, with family tensions and criticism within the military establishment escalating.
Israel's religious parties, partners in the government, are pushing for a law exempting religious Jews from military service, which would affect the number of regular soldiers and force the army to frequently call up reservists.
Following the government and the occupation army's decision to expand military operations in the Gaza Strip, tens of thousands of reserve soldiers were called up to cover the shortage of regular forces.
The newspaper expects that the call-up of reserve soldiers will continue for at least two months annually, in the absence of an increase in the number of regular soldiers.
She also pointed to the ongoing efforts of religious parties, led by United Torah Judaism and Shas, to thwart attempts to recruit religious school students, with threats to bring down the government coalition if they are forced to serve.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews (Haredim) continue their protests against military service following a Supreme Court ruling on June 25, 2024, requiring them to enlist and halting financial aid to religious institutions whose students refuse to serve.
The newspaper reported increasing complaints and criticism from soldiers and commanders in the Israeli army regarding the reserve service model, which began to be intensively implemented at the end of last year. This model requires the reserve to be called up for 72 days annually, with specific rest periods.
The newspaper also reported that the diversion of regular divisions to combat in Gaza led to the call-up of tens of thousands of reserve soldiers to compensate for troop shortages in other areas, such as the northern border and the West Bank.
In early May, the Israeli military began sending out conscription orders to thousands of reserve soldiers in preparation for expanded military operations in Gaza.
In the same month, a study from Tel Aviv University revealed that approximately 12% of reserve soldiers who participated in operations in Gaza suffer from severe symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, rendering them unable to return to duty, according to Haaretz.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel, with US support, has continued to carry out military operations in the Gaza Strip, leaving more than 179,000 Palestinians dead or wounded, most of them women and children, in addition to more than 11,000 missing and hundreds of thousands displaced.
