Military Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir reportedly warned the “IDF is going to collapse in on itself” during a security cabinet meeting this week, as the army deals with mounting operational demands and a growing manpower shortage.

“I am raising 10 red flags in front of you,” Zamir told ministers, according a Channel 13 news report on Thursday.

“Right now, the IDF needs a conscription law, a reserve duty law, and a law to extend mandatory service,” he was quoted as saying. “Before long, the IDF will not be ready for its routine missions and the reserve system will not last.”

The reported comments sparked criticism from opposition figures, who said the government was not attending to the country’s security and called for more efforts to draft ultra-Orthodox men. A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office, conversely, attributed the blame to legal holdups in the passage of its legislation.

Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, who was also at the cabinet the meeting, said the government’s policies in the West Bank are placing a growing strain on the IDF’s already stretched manpower, Channel 12 reported. Bluth reportedly told ministers that over the past year, they approved the establishment of numerous settlements in the Jordan Valley and across the West Bank — developments that require increased security coverage.

“This is your policy,” Bluth reportedly said, “but it requires security and a full protection package, because the reality on the ground has completely changed — and that requires manpower.”

Ministers were also shown footage of settler violence incidents during the meeting, according to Channel 12.

Attacks by extremist settlers have spiked during the ongoing war with Iran. This week, the Israel Defense Forces diverted an infantry battalion that was intended to be deployed to Lebanon to the West Bank amid a spate of attacks by settlers against Palestinians. The military says even more troops may be needed to combat the attacks.

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid held a press conference after the Channel 13 report aired, blaming the government for “sending the army into a multi-front war without a strategy, without sufficient resources, and with too few soldiers.”

“This time, the government will not be able to say, ‘I didn’t know.’ This is the chief of staff they appointed, and they will not be able to politicize him and shift the blame onto him,” Lapid added, saying that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not be able to say, “I am not responsible.”

Lapid called on the government to do much more to draft ultra-Orthodox men, who have long enjoyed sweeping exemptions from military service that the government previously sough to enshrine into law.

He added that the government “must fight Jewish terrorism with every available means,” and called on the government to “strip authority” from far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, “who openly supports Jewish terrorists,” and to “deploy all enforcement capabilities.”

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett, seen as one of Netanyahu’s leading competitors in this year’s election, also called on the government to draft the ultra-Orthodox during an interview on Channel 12, saying that Israel’s leadership was “preventing the IDF from winning.”

“The IDF is 20,000 soldiers short,” he said. “There are 100,000 young Haredim of military age in good health today, and if they only recruited a fifth of them, there would be no problem.”

Gadi Eisenkot, a former IDF chief of staff who is also running against Netanyahu, addressed the government, writing on X, “You won’t be able to say again that you didn’t know. The chief of staff is ‘raising ten red flags,’ the reservists and their families are crying out, and the government of Israel ignores them and continues to encourage draft exemption.”

The leader of the Democrats Party, Yair Golan, said the government was “spitting in the face of the reservists” and “throwing them under the bus while rewarding draft dodging.”

MK Benny Gantz, leader of the Blue and White party and another former IDF chief, called Zamir’s warning a “serious indictment against the government at a time of war.”

In a statement reported by Hebrew media, Netanyahu’s office claimed that opposition politicians distorted Zamir’s remarks.

The Prime Minister’s Office said that Zamir had called for the passage of laws regulating the draft, reserve duty and extending mandatory military service. Netanyahu’s office claimed that it is working to pass those laws but is being stymied by legal advisers.

The IDF brass however has not backed the government’s draft exemption law, with a senior military officer saying in December that it fell short of solving the military’s manpower shortage. After the start of the Iran war, Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the bill would be set aside.

Some ruling Likud party lawmakers echoed Zamir’s reported warning. MK Dan Illouz, who opposed the Haredi draft exemption bill, wrote on X that “Being right-wing means, first and foremost, security.”

“You can’t demand annexation, settlement and total victory, and then let the IDF collapse due to lack of soldiers,” he wrote.

MK Eli Dallal, also of the Likud, called on X for the government to enforce its laws and recruit ultra-Orthodox men, writing that this was the only way to keep the IDF’s manpower problem from deteriorating further.

Other Likud lawmakers instead turned their ire at Zamir.

Sources close to Likud Boaz Bismuth, the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chair and architect of the draft exemption bill, called Zamir’s comments “irresponsible” and “unprecedented,” saying they “directly harm the war effort,” and constituted “dangerous behavior,” according to Hebrew media reports.

Likud MK Tally Gotliv labeled Zamir’s reported comments “defeatism” which “strengthens our enemies.”

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3 US said mulling ‘final blow’ options if Iran talks fail, including sending troops to seize key assets

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IDF Israel Defense Forces

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