Army complains of manpower shortage as Knesset restarts work on draft exemption bill |
The IDF’s manpower shortage is expected to grow considerably in the coming months, a senior military officer told lawmakers on Wednesday, as the Knesset resumed discussing a controversial legislation aimed at exempting ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students from conscription.
Addressing the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Brig. Gen. Shay Tayeb, head of the IDF Personnel Directorate’s Planning and Personnel Management Division, said that the number of missing troops is slated to soon rise from 12,000 to 17,000 — despite a small but insufficient increase in Haredi recruits from around 700 annually before the war to around 2,800 currently.
According to Tayeb, there are currently around 32,000 people classified as draft evaders, while over 50,000 others have received a formal warning ahead of their formal declaration by the government as draft evaders.
“We will very soon reach 80,000 to 90,000 draft dodgers,” Tayeb said, adding that the army is “prepared to absorb twice as many” Haredim as are currently enlisting.
Tayeb’s warning came only days after Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir told the committee that the military needs more soldiers “immediately,” amid ongoing multifront fighting, and the IDF issued a warning that the reserve army could “collapse” if necessary legislation is not advanced by the government.
Zamir has repeatedly urged the government to again extend mandatory military service for men to 36 months, after it was shortened to 30 months in August 2024.
The fight to draft the Haredim
Turning to the coalition’s ultra-Orthodox draft exemption bill, which was returned to the Knesset agenda on Wednesday, Tayeb said that the IDF had “not presented with a new draft that was substantially different from the previous versions that we discussed in dozens of prior discussions.
Addressing the committee in December, Tayeb said that the legislation fell short of solving the IDF’s manpower shortage. In January, he told lawmakers that up to 80 percent of all draft evaders are ultra-Orthodox.
Some 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged between 18 and 24 are currently believed to be eligible for military service, but have not........