In an article published in the Hebrew newspaper Maariv, Brik, who is also a military expert, addressed the "evasion of thousands of officers and non-commissioned officers from military service in recent months," referring to some of them evading the summons with various excuses, and others refusing to renew their service in the army.
Brik explained that "a large number of officers have requested urgent discharge, while young recruits refuse to sign permanent service contracts (extending their service in the army), which has caused a widespread shortage of professional personnel within the army," adding that "the sharp decline in the quality of manpower is hindering the maintenance of military equipment and the operation of combat systems."
He argued that the continuation of this situation "could lead, within a short period, to the army losing its ability to operate completely," accusing successive chiefs of staff of making "inappropriate" decisions in recent years, including extensive reductions in manpower and shortening the duration of military service, which created gaps he described as "enormous and not easily repairable."
He said that these gaps "have led professional and highly experienced personnel to leave the service, while elements incapable of dealing with the challenges of the current battlefield remain in sensitive positions," noting that "the Army's human resources department has been operating for years in a lack of professionalism and responsibility," and ignores "fundamental problems related to human resource management and needs assessment."
He stated that the army suffers from "information blindness" due to outdated technical systems and fragmented databases, warning that the manpower crisis could develop into a "complete paralysis" in the army's performance.
During the two years of the Israeli war of extermination in the Gaza Strip, 923 Israeli soldiers were killed and 6,399 others were wounded, according to army data, while about 20,000 soldiers suffer from post-traumatic stress symptoms, according to Hebrew media.
Amid tight military censorship of the Israeli media, the army faces accusations of concealing a larger toll of its losses in order to maintain morale.
On October 8, 2023, Israel began a two-year genocide in the Gaza Strip, leaving more than 70,000 Palestinian martyrs and 170,000 wounded, most of them children and women, and massive destruction with reconstruction costs estimated by the United Nations at about $70 billion.
