Israeli army faces deepening manpower crisis as hundreds seek early retirement: Reports
Personnel crisis looms large over the Israeli military as hundreds of career forces, including senior officers, have formally requested early retirement.
Israeli media outlets reported the development on Wednesday, noting that the wave of departures comes amid mounting draft evasion, internal political turmoil, and the regime’s lingering presence in the Gaza Strip that has overstretched the army’s capabilities.
According to the Yedioth Ahronoth paper, representatives from the military’s Personnel Administration told Knesset (the Israeli parliament)’s relevant committee that roughly 600 career troopers and officers had asked to “resign” early.
Many have been enlisted in, what the military has outlined as, “critical roles” that it has struggled to fill since October 2023, when the Israeli regime began a war of genocide on Gaza.
“There were those whose retirement we postponed throughout the war simply because we have no replacements for them,” a military official told legislators, underscoring the urgency of the manpower shortage.
Approximately 85 percent of career forces retire at the rank of lieutenant colonel or below, magnifying, what observers call, the loss of operational mid-level command.
Bar Kalifa, a senior personnel official with the Israeli military, linked the accelerating crisis to a Supreme Court decision striking down pension supplements for career officers, describing it as a blow to the forces’ morale.
The ruling came as the war has tasked the regime’s coffers to the tune of billions of shekels, despite unprecedented American military support that has accounted for around two-thirds of the forces’ equipment.
The reports also emerged amid raucous protests among the regime’s settlers against, what they have defined as, Tel Aviv’s abandoning the interests of the forces by pursuing the genocide at their risk.
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‘Dodging draft now normal’
Kalifa added that the military currently needed an additional 12,000 forces to meet operational demands, even as thousands attempt to avoid service altogether.
“We now have more than 17,000 draft dodgers,” he said. “Dodging the draft has become the norm,” he noted, adding, “An army of lawyers” is securing fraudulent exemptions.”
The crisis is exacerbated by the long-running exemption of ultra-Orthodox men, known as Haredim, whose leadership continues to rally opposition to conscription.
Haredi rabbis have urged followers to reject enlistment orders outright, fueling protests that have strained both the military and police.
Opposition members of the Knesset say Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing legislation to permanently exempt the Haredim in exchange for political loyalty from ultra-Orthodox parties.
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