The Israeli Defense Minister announces an urgent need for 10,000 soldiers

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant revealed on Monday that the Israeli army needs 10,000 additional soldiers immediately. Army Radio quoted Galant as telling the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee that Israel immediately needed 10,000 soldiers and that they could recruit 4,800 ultra-Orthodox Jews.

Israel continues its war on the Gaza Strip while threatening war on Lebanon and continues its raids, arrests, and assassinations in the occupied West Bank. In parallel, Israeli Channel 12 said that about 900 officers of varying ranks requested to consider the possibility of being removed from military service contracts during the past year, while such requests previously did not exceed 150 officers.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz said that dozens of reserve soldiers announced that they would not return to military service in the Gaza Strip even if they were punished. This comes at a time when Israeli media reported that hundreds of reserve soldiers in the Israeli army leave abroad every month without informing their commanders in light of the ongoing war on Gaza, where the occupation forces have suffered heavy losses during the past months.

Last Tuesday, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled to impose the conscription of Haredi Jews into the occupation army, which is facing fierce resistance in the Gaza Strip and is under pressure on the southern Lebanon front. The Israeli Supreme Court also ordered a freeze on the budget of religious schools, saying in its ruling that there was no legal basis for the government to exempt Haredi Jews from conscription.