The IDF’s capacity to absorb ultra-Orthodox recruits is set to increase dramatically in the coming years, Brig. Gen. Shay Tayeb, head of the IDF Personnel Directorate’s Planning and Personnel Management Division, told lawmakers on Tuesday, but also called for stronger sanctions on draft dodgers.

Briefing the Knesset State Control Committee, Tayeb said that in the current recruitment year, which ends in June, the IDF has the capability to handle 4,800 Haredi recruits, a number that will then rise by 20% to 5,700 the following year. Assuming the IDF is provided with the necessary resources, it will be able to absorb Haredim “without any restrictions” after that.

Moreover, all eligible Israelis aged 16 from the current draft cohort will receive recruitment orders, with more than 10,000 outstanding call-up orders expected to be issued issued over the course of the coming year.

This appears to be in addition to the 3,000 draft notices sent to Haredi men aged 18-26 over the summer. An additional 7,000 orders were approved by Defense Minister Israel Katz in November.

The IDF later said that it had completed sending out the 7,000 draft orders.

The orders constitute the first stage in the screening and evaluation process that the army carries out for recruits ahead of enlistment in the military in the coming year.

It also noted that this past week, 338 members of the ultra-Orthodox community enlisted in the military for mandatory service, including 211 combat soldiers and 127 combat support. The combat soldiers include 70 draftees to the Kfir Brigade’s Netzah Yehuda Battalion; 19 to the Tomer Company in the Givati Brigade’s Rotem Battalion; 19 to the Hetz Company in the Paratroopers Brigade’s 202nd Battalion; 11 to the Nevatim Airbase’s ground defense unit; 35 to Border Police; and 57 to the Hasmonean Brigade, the IDF’s new Haredi brigade.

Going forward, “there will be tens of thousands of members of the ultra-Orthodox community under orders,” Tayeb said.

Tayeb said that the military requires some 12,000 new soldiers........

© The Times of Israel