AL-QUDS (Dispatches) – The Zionist regime’s media revealed on Monday the worsening manpower crisis in the occupying regime’s “army”, noting that the “army” is finding it difficult to retain its officers.
Channel 12 reported that “900 officers with the ranks of captain and major requested discharge from the army this year,” compared to 100 to 120 officers who requested it in previous years.
The channel considered the sharp increase in the number of officers requesting discharge as a “crisis for the regime, not just the army”, describing the situation as “worrying”.
Military analyst Nir Dvori on Channel 12 explained that one of the most challenging issues now is keeping officers in important positions within the army.
He noted that in recent months, it has become evident that officers are inclined to leave the “army” or are considering doing so.
He added that most officers with the ranks of captain and major are in their late twenties and are supposed to stay and plan their careers for the next 15 to 20 years in the army.
Regarding the reasons for the increase in the number of officers requesting discharge, Dvori mentioned that October 7 was one of the main reasons, along with incentives and bonuses, as well as the delegitimization campaigns against the army by some Israelis and certain politicians.
Meanwhile, war minister Yoav Gallant said on Monday that the Zionist regime’s army needs 10,000 more soldiers immediately amid the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
“The [Zionist regime’s] army needs 10,000 more soldiers immediately,” Gallant said in statements carried by Army Radio during a session of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
He said the army can recruit 4,800 soldiers from ultra-Orthodox males.
Last week, the occupying regime’s top court unanimously ruled that ultra-Orthodox Jews must be subject to the military draft, after decades of being exempted from military service.
The Zionist regime, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal onslaught on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023.
At least 37,900 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 87,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.
Over eight months into the Zionist regime’s war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.
The regime stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its aggression in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.