The Israeli army is seeking to recruit young volunteers from the Jewish diaspora – particularly from France and the United States – to address a manpower shortage that has left the military strained after nearly two years of intense combat in Gaza.
It is looking into how to appeal to Jewish communities abroad to convince those between 18-25 years of age to sign up. The goal is to recruit some 600 to 700 soldiers per year from the diaspora to to fill the up to 12,000 estimated vacancies, Israeli Army Radio announced Monday.
“No one has officially informed us of such a move,” a representative from the Jewish Agency, the organisation in charge of promoting and organising immigration to Israel, told the French daily Le Figaro. Foreign volunteers without Israeli citizenship could only work in support tasks, but not in combat units, according to him.
The Israeli army is seeing its numbers dwindle even as the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vows to expand its military offensive to occupying Gaza City by October 7, 2025 – the two-year anniversary of the deadly Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel.
To combat the shortfall, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) last week offered those facing jail time for desertion a one-time amnesty if they registered within five days.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews, who were once exempt from military service, can now be drafted into the armed forces. In January, the Israeli army welcomed its first batch of ultra-Orthodox into a new fighting brigade. But the army faces an uphill battle to actually enlist a significant number of ultra-Orthodox.
The recruitment effort comes amid mounting international criticism over the destruction of Gaza, the displacement of an estimated 1.9 million people and more than 60,000 Palestinian deaths, most of them civilians. The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders on suspicion of war crimes.
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Demoralisation at the front
"We all participated and supported the war effort at the beginning," said Guy Poran, a former army officer and helicopter pilot who has become an outspoken critic of the war. "But this war has long since become about revenge. A messianic fantasy of occupying Gaza."
According to Poran, Israeli public opinion on the war is shifting.
"A majority of Israelis now believe that the conflict in Gaza is no longer about Israeli security but about pursuing a political agenda," he said.
After 23 months, the war in Gaza is the longest in Israeli history. And it has taken a toll on its armed forces: almost 900 soldiers have died in Gaza, according to official figures, while media reports say at least 18,500 have been wounded or are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Some 50 have reportedly committed suicide.
The IDF lists an additional 14,600 Israelis as draft dodgers or deserters.
The stated goal of occupying Gaza City could require the mobilisation of more than 100,000 reservists, according to IDF estimates. The Israeli army began sending call-up orders to some 60,000 of them on Wednesday as Netanyahu's office spoke of a "shortened" timeline in a post on X.
Reservists are part-time soldiers who have agreed to fight when reinforcements are necessary. But many are disillusioned with the conflict and beleaguered by almost two years of war. Many have already served multiple tours and say they have lost trust in Israel's leadership and the reasons for the war.
A survey by Agam Labs at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem found that almost 36 percent of reservists said they were either slightly or significantly less motivated to serve than they were at the beginning of the conflict. Only a little more than 13 percent felt more motivated.
The largest group of respondents, 47 percent, expressed negative feelings towards the government's handling of the war and the hostage crisis.
"While some deserters resign for ideological reasons, many surrender out of fatigue, for financial reasons or at the behest of their families, after hundreds of days of fighting far from home," Poran said from Tel Aviv.
Many military personnel, including the highest-ranking officers, have been overcome by doubt. Army Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir initially called Netanyahu's plan to occupy Gaza City a "strategic trap", warning that it would endanger the remaining hostages and strain the army.
Zamir later changed his tune, approving the "main framework" of an expanded offensive in mid-August.
"He could have resigned, but he chose to play along," Poran observed.
But Zamir's vocal objections may have a lasting effect, according to Poran. "Can you imagine the state of mind of the military personnel who are asked to risk their lives in Gaza City carrying out a mission that the chief of staff himself disapproves of?" he asked. "It is tremendously demoralising, and I expect the number of reservists refusing to report for duty to increase."
Cracks in Israeli society
Disillusion with the war is spreading across Israeli society, from the front line to the political and religious spheres.
"Israeli democracy is seeing an unhealthy corrosion of the visceral bond between the nation and its current leaders," said David Rigoulet-Roze, a researcher at the French Institute for Strategic Analysis and a Middle East specialist.
The war has also turned a spotlight on the privileged position enjoyed by the ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi. Since the founding of Israel, they have enjoyed a near-universal exemption from military service based on the idea that they would devote themselves instead to studying Judaism's holy texts.
But the crisis that followed October 7, 2023, have prompted a reconsideration.
As the war in Gaza dragged on, "Haredi life has largely continued as usual, untouched by the war and its toll," Yair Rosenberg observed in The Atlantic, adding that the exemption is getting harder to justify. "Yeshiva students have even been photographed enjoying ski vacations abroad while their same-age peers are on the battlefield."
Israel's Supreme Court ended the draft exemption for ultra-Orthodox men in June 2024, making an estimated 70,000 more soldiers eligible to fight. But the move had little effect: almost a year later, only 2 percent of the 10,000 who were called up obeyed their draft orders.
As Rosenberg put it, "more Arab Israelis serve in the Israel Defense Forces than ultra-Orthodox Jews".
(This article has been translated from the original in French.)
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