JERUSALEM: More than a year into the Gaza war, the Israeli army’s reservists are exhausted and it is struggling to recruit soldiers just as it opens a new front in Lebanon.
Some 300,000 reservists have been called up since the Hamas attack of Oct 7, 2023, according to the army, 18 per cent of them men over 40 who should have been exempted.
Military service is mandatory from the age of 18 for Israeli men and women, though several exemptions apply.
Israel is waging a multi-front war against Hamas in Gaza and Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Since the military launched its ground offensive in Gaza on Oct 27 last year, it has lost 367 soldiers in the campaign, while 37 have died in Lebanon since Israel began ground operations there on Sep 30.
Periods of reserve duty have been extended, and some reservists complain they are unable to go on with their normal lives for up to six straight months.
“We’re drowning,” said reservist Ariel Seri-Levy in a social media post shared thousands of times.
He said he had been called up four times since the Oct 7, 2023 attack, and called out those who want Israel to “stay in Lebanon and Gaza”.
“We have to end this war because we are out of soldiers,” he said, adding that while he still believed in serving one’s country, “the concessions have become too great”.
Another reservist and father of two told AFP under condition of anonymity that “to fatigue and moral exhaustion is added the fact that I lost my job”.
Many freelance workers have had to close shop because of the war, even if the government guarantees a minimum income for reservists.
“The collective is still above the individual but the cost is too great for my family,” the reservist said, adding that he spent nearly six months in Gaza this year.
