Israel to call up reservists amid ‘severe force depletion’ in Gaza war
Confronted with a growing crisis in troop numbers, the Israeli military has been compelled to initiate a large-scale mobilization of reserve soldiers as it prepares to escalate its ongoing onslaught against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Israeli media reported the regime’s decision to call up thousands of reservists comes amid its refusal to reach a ceasefire deal with the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.
“With the 36th Division continuing its offensive in Rafah (southern Gaza), the Israeli army is preparing to ramp up its military efforts in Gaza next week if no progress is made in negotiations over a potential agreement,” Hebrew-language daily Yedioth Ahronoth said.
“In recent days, several reserve officers have alerted their units to prepare for a sudden call-up,” the daily added.
Yedioth Ahronoth reported that the Israeli military had originally planned to limit each reservist’s service to two and a half months in 2025, but the cap was exceeded after two battalions were called up for a second round of duty due to the escalating onslaught in Gaza.
The call-up order comes amid a severe shortage of forces, with the regime’s chief of staff Eyal Zamir warning that the army cannot fulfill its missions without substantial reinforcement from reserve forces.
Describing the shortage as “severe force depletion,” Zamir called for imposing “penalties on draft dodgers,” in a vivid reference to the widespread exemption of ultra-Orthodox Haredi Jews from military service.
According to the Yedioth Ahronoth, the Israeli military is expected to issue around 24,000 preliminary draft notices to Haredi youth by the end of June.
However, only about 300 of these draft orders have been formally processed, and enforcement has been weak due to the hardline Israeli cabinet’s policies.
Israel’s Channel 12, Ynet, Kan and other media outlets also said the prime minister held a security consultation earlier in the week to review “substantial mobilization” of the occupation forces for the planned offensive.
The regime’s cabinet is slated to convene on Sunday to vote on prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s military plans for Gaza amid heightened escalation for the past month and a half since the breakdown of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Israel has already expanded its ground aggression in the besieged Gaza Strip, seeking to seize a large portion of the Palestinian territory.
In recent weeks, thousands of Israeli reservists have signed letters demanding that Netanyahu’s regime stop the war in the besieged strip.
Israel resumed its brutal campaign in the Gaza Strip on March 18, unilaterally breaching a two-month truce.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Thursday that at least 2,326 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes. More than 52,400 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, most of them women and children.
In November 2024, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and the former Israeli minister for military affairs, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on Gaza.
