AL-QUDS (Dispatches) – More than a year into the Gaza genocide, the Zionist regime’s army’s reservists are exhausted and it is struggling to recruit forces just as it opens a new front in Lebanon.
Some 300,000 reservists have been called up since October 7, 2023, according to the army, 18 percent of them men over 40 who should have been exempted.
Military service is mandatory from the age of 18 for men and women, though several exemptions apply.
The Zionist regime is waging a multi-front war against Hamas in Gaza and other resistance factions in Lebanon and Yemen.
Since the military launched its ground aggression in Gaza on October 27 last year, it has lost 367 soldiers in the campaign, while 37 have died in Lebanon since the Zionist regime began ground operations there on September 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 October 7, and called out those who want the Zionist regime 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.
The ongoing war has inflamed the public debate on drafting ultra-Orthodox radicals, many of whom are exempted from military service.
The ultra-Orthodox account for 14 percent of population of the Zionist regime, representing about 1.3 million people. About 66,000 of those of conscription age are exempted, according to the army.