Israel’s exhausted soldiers complicate Gaza assault plans

Israel is preparing to call up tens of thousands of reserve soldiers for its Gaza City offensive, but military officials say it’s not clear how many of them will return to the fight after nearly two years of grinding war.

Over the past few months, an increasing number of Israeli reserve soldiers have not been showing up for military service. Some cite exhaustion, as well as the need to save strained marriages or foundering careers. Others say they are increasingly disillusioned with the war.

The rising discontent in the ranks threatens to complicate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to take control of Gaza City in an effort to decisively rout Hamas. The military has said it plans to call up an additional 60,000 reservists and extend the service of 20,000 more.

Besides Gaza, Israeli forces are also still fighting on several other fronts: Israeli soldiers now patrol parts of southern Lebanon and Syria, in addition to mounting major incursions into Palestinian cities in the West Bank.

The Israeli military did not provide hard numbers on how many reservists have dropped out, making it difficult to assess the scale of the phenomenon. In May, a senior Israeli military official told a parliamentary committee that while there had been some attrition, most reservists were still coming. Four soldiers who spoke to The New York Times in the last few months said their units were still motivated to continue fighting.

But around a dozen other officers and soldiers described depleted and exhausted units, with at least two saying that 40 to 50 percent of their reservist comrades were not turning up for duty.

Others said they had dropped out, believing that the war was no longer just. Most spoke on condition of anonymity because they were worried about reprisals or were not authorised to speak publicly.

Few soldiers have faced penalties for not reporting to their units, although a handful who refused on ideological grounds have served short stints in military prison.

Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, the Israeli military chief, objected to Netanyahu’s decision to expand the offensive in Gaza in part because of concerns over the fitness of reservists, according to four Israeli security officials.

Israel broadly conscripts Jewish Israelis after high school, although it makes a much-criticised exemption for the country’s ultra-Orthodox minority. The military relies heavily on reservists to form up to two-thirds of the overall force, particularly its pilot corps and many of the infantry battalions needed to launch a full-scale attack on Gaza City.

While some Israeli military planners argue that most reservists still answer when called, others now worry that the shortfall will make completing the operation more difficult, according to two Israeli defence officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly.

“We keep trying to squeeze out everything we can without real strategic planning,” said Omer Dank, an Israeli military analyst who serves in the air force reserves. “The current model is unsustainable. The army is exhausted.”

Military analysts say the system of calling up reservists from civilian life for stints in battle worked for shorter wars. But many reservists have now done hundreds of days of active service, turning them into absent fathers, employees and students.

One soldier said turnout in his 100-strong company had gradually dwindled to 60, with many citing tensions at home over child care, problems at their day jobs and mental health reasons. To incentivise reservists, the soldier said, his unit was being deployed into Gaza for a week at a time, then being given two-week breaks of paid leave.

A soldier in an infantry unit said just half of his team had arrived for his last call-up late last year. Another platoon commander in the reserves said that while his own soldiers were still coming, other officers were struggling to handle turnout as low as 40%.

Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on
Israel started the war in Gaza and prompted the Israeli government to call up more than 300,000 reserve soldiers. In
that attack, roughly 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and about 250 were taken hostage.

Initially, the turnout rate was often over 100 percent, according to the Israeli military, as volunteers rushed to bases, hoping to join the fight. But as the war has dragged on, cracks have begun to emerge.

“It’s not that people have decided to shirk their duty. It’s because they are genuinely struggling,” said Ariel Heimann, a retired brigadier general who led a military body that managed reservists.

One member of the military’s elite paratroopers unit served two rounds of reserve duty in Gaza and Lebanon. In April, his platoon returned to Gaza as part of a renewed offensive against Hamas — but this time, he told his commanders that he could not bear to join them.

One of his best friends was killed by a missile in Gaza, he said, and readjusting to civilian life was enough of a battle.

Other soldiers are also infuriated that the military is demanding ever more weeks of service, even as the Israeli government has pushed to exempt ultra-Orthodox religious students from conscription to satisfy Netanyahu’s political allies.

Ron Peretz, a university student, is on his fourth tour of reserve duty, which is set to last until October. One of the hardest parts, he said, was the impossibility of making any future plans.

“In my battalion, they know most of us will keep coming over and over again. It’s a cynical use of our patriotism, even as they don’t draft tens of thousands of others,” said Peretz, referring to the ultra-Orthodox.

Several soldiers said the military was trying to manage the declining motivation of reservists to serve extended tours in Gaza by sending them to calmer fronts, like the occupied West Bank. The young conscripts they replaced were deployed to Gaza, they said.

A smaller number of Israeli soldiers have begun to refuse to serve in Gaza on ideological grounds, arguing that the war against Hamas has lost its way. More than 60,000 people have been killed in Gaza, including thousands of children, according to Palestinian health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Ron Feiner, a 26-year-old captain, was sentenced in June to 25 days in a military prison for refusing to join his battalion’s most recent deployment. He spent about 270 days in uniform, including in deadly firefights during Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“The government is trying to drag out this war as long as possible, even if it means leaving the hostages behind,” said Feiner.

Another Israeli reservist said his doubts deepened after his comrades-in-arms set at least 10 Palestinian homes ablaze as vengeance for the October 7 attacks during a deployment to northern Gaza. Their commanders had greenlit the practice, he said. In response to a question from The Times about the alleged incident, the Israeli military said reports of improper conduct would be investigated and a criminal investigation opened if necessary.

The soldier and another member of his battalion said they had rebuffed calls from their commanders to come back to active duty. Their units deployed again to Gaza in early May without them, they said.

Others returned to war despite qualms over the direction of the Israeli campaign.

Before Avshalom Zohar-Sal, a 28-year-old combat soldier, left for his latest tour of duty in the Gaza Strip in May, his family and girlfriend begged him not to risk his life in a war that all of them — including him — no longer supported.

“At the beginning, this was a war which was forced upon us. But come on, that’s no longer the case, and it hasn’t been for a while,” Zohar-Sal said in a phone call as he drove south toward Gaza. “This should have ended a long time ago.”