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Lt. Col. T., a senior officer in an IDF armored reserve brigade, is preparing to enter Gaza for a third tour in two weeks. But despite the renewed fighting, he says he is struggling to fill the ranks. “There’s a significant challenge in recruiting reservists. You can feel it with every call you make. It’s not what it was a year ago,” he told Ynet and Yedioth Ahronoth.
“Reservists understand that, at least for now, this draft is mainly for guard duty, not for intensive combat, and they’re saying: ‘I was drafted, I gave up things — at least let me fight, do something active.’ Right now, it looks like defensive tasks, and people simply aren’t showing up,” he explained.
According to Lt. Col. T., his brigade is facing a 30% decrease in manpower. “With a full roster, I need 15 officers to allow for normal rotation. Right now, two weeks before deployment, I barely have five. If I can’t get another five, it’s a major problem,” he explained. “We have entire companies off the roster because they lack both a company commander and deputy — there are only two platoon leaders left. If I can’t bring in more people, I’ll go with fewer. My concern is that those who do come will be overworked, and after a while they’ll say they can’t go on and leave. This is a serious problem that people need to address.”
Lt. Col. T. isn’t alone. Other officers are sounding the alarm over the growing difficulty of recruiting combat soldiers and staff for upcoming deployments, warning that the issue demands urgent attention.
“There are the usual reasons,” said Lt. Col. T. “Some say their semester is more important now because they’re behind in studies or work, others have serious personal matters. I have one officer with a three-month-old baby he’s barely seen, another who recently got divorced and shares custody. This touches everyone. There’s a drop in manpower, and we’re having a hard time recruiting after nearly a year and a half of intense activity. We need more people.”
Officers reported that reserve recruitment rates of 50% to 70% are now the exception, with the burden falling on fewer and fewer soldiers.
“Normally, my calls to reservists end quickly,” described Lt. Col. A., another officer struggling to recruit. “As soon as they hear it’s me, they explain they can’t do it anymore. I’ve ended up calling people who’ve been exempt for years. It’s like pulling from the reserves of the reserves.” He added, “Everyone wants to contribute, that’s clear, but people’s lives have been on hold for too long, and they’re struggling.”
A battalion commander who served in Gaza during the past two deployments and recently in the West Bank described a similar challenge. “There’s real distress; it’s not easy to fight for this long,” he said. “The motivation is high, but it’s a very complex situation. You can see the drop in recruitment rates from one rotation to the next. And these are good people—you can’t blame them. They’ve left everything behind and have been fighting for 300 days, sometimes more.”
Turning Reservists into Contractors?
The pressures on reservists and the low turnout rates have forced the IDF to take extraordinary steps, offering financial incentives to encourage reservists to show up. Combat reservists are being called up for a month-long deployment stretched artificially over two months in a “week-on, week-off” format. This system, previously reserved for rear positions like cooks, drivers, and base guards, allows reservists to spend one week in service and the next at home on full IDF pay.
While this approach eases the burden on soldiers’ personal lives, it places a heavier financial strain on the government, costing tens of millions of additional shekels each quarter. It also aligns with other financial benefits the government is offering to reservists to encourage participation.
Some officers argue that this shift undermines the IDF’s “people’s army” model, replacing values like volunteerism, Zionism and pride with financial motivations that, in practice, are turning the military into a professional army in the second year of war.
“It’s good that the state is helping reservists financially, including the additional 3 billion shekels from the Finance Ministry,” said a field unit commander. “But this makes sense for a few months of war. Now that it’s dragging into a second year, we’re seeing most IDF fighters effectively becoming salaried employees.”
He noted the rise in “attached reservists,” typically young people aged 22–23 who haven’t found stable civilian jobs and choose to serve in the reserves because of the financial benefits. “These young guys inflate the IDF’s reported turnout rates to 80%–85%, which is misleading,” he said. “They’re great soldiers, but they’re usually assigned to less critical defensive tasks, and with the renewed fighting, commanders will struggle to use them in offensive operations because they’re unfamiliar with the regular units.”
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Some units have even created entire sections and companies of attached reservists. Commanders are increasingly lenient when soldiers request not to report for duty. “How can a battalion commander, in good conscience, punish a reservist who’s already served nearly a year in Gaza, Lebanon or the West Bank, risked his life, but now can’t come because of family crises, academic delays from prolonged absence, emotional exhaustion, or a collapsing business?” he asked.
The IDF said it is working hard to improve the efficiency of its reserve system, focusing on increasing and maximizing the standing army. Officials emphasized that the performance of reservists and the entire reserve force during the war has been exceptional, with impressive turnout since October 7.
“The IDF greatly values their contribution and sees them as a central component of its combat capability,” the statement read. “Significant efforts are being made to honor and reward reservists and their families.”