Israel’s war-weary reservists seek end to fighting

Israel’s war on multiple fronts has not only worn down its enemy. It has not only claimed the lives of thousands of civilians in Gaza and Lebanon. He also continues to exact a price from his own people.

There is a growing sense of war fatigue in Israel. The recent ceasefire agreement with Lebanon will be a relief to many. Especially for Noam Glukhovsky, an IDF reservist who spent much of last year serving on the front lines as a medic.

We spoke to Noam, 33, in Tel Aviv before the ceasefire was announced. “We cannot continue waging this war much longer. “We simply don’t have the manpower to move forward without a clear end date and goal,” he said.

As an IDF reservist, Noam would normally expect to perform a few weeks of military service a year. But last year he spent 250 days in uniform. The war, he said, had torn him from the life he knew. His plans to become a doctor have also been delayed by a year.

When we met, Noam was trying to catch up on his studies, but also waiting to see if he would be called back. His mood was defiant.

“I can’t put my life on hold anymore,” he said. Unless there was a dramatic change in the direction of the war, he said he would not return to his unit. He had had enough.

The IDF already recognizes that fewer and fewer reserves are reporting for service. After the Hamas attacks on October 7 last year, which killed about 1,200 people, more than 300,000 reservists responded. Participation exceeded 100%. Now it is down to 85%. Noam estimates that in his unit the response is even lower: around 60% of those called up now show up for work.

Reserves and conscripts are the lifeblood of the IDF. Brigadier General Ariel Heimann, also a reservist and former reserve chief, says Israel is too small a country to have a large, expensive and professional regular army. Without reservists, he says, the IDF could not fight or survive.

According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the IDF has 170,000 active duty troops, including conscripts, and 465,000 reserves.

Brigadier General Heimann admits that the IDF’s dependence on reserves will become more difficult the longer the war lasts. He compared the IDF to a spring: if it is stretched too much, it will break. At the moment he says he is adapting.

But in a sign of the tension, the IDF wants to extend mandatory service for male recruits from 32 to 36 months.

The fact that the burden of service is not shared by all has also fueled a sense of resentment. One group has been exempt from military service for decades: thousands of haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, Jews. They believe that the lives of their young people should be dedicated to religious studies and not military service.

The issue has already divided Israel’s coalition government. But, following the intervention of the attorney general, recruitment documents are being sent to 7,000 Haredi Jewish men. They have responded with angry protests. But Brigadier General Heimann, like ousted former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, says they have a “moral duty to serve.”

Not only a personal sacrifice is required, but also an economic one.

The Bank of Israel said in May that the cost of the war to Israel could reach $70 billion (£55 billion) by the end of next year, an estimate made before the country’s ground invasion of Lebanon. Small businesses are among the hardest hit.

Shelly Lotan’s new food tech company is among many struggling to survive. Shelly has already had to move her business from northern Israel to avoid Hezbollah rockets. Two of its seven employees have been called up for military service.

The morning we meet, at her home in Tel Aviv, Shelly has just received more bad news. You’ve received a text message from one of your employees whose military service is being extended.

“I can’t tell you how important it is to have another employee gone for another month,” Shelly says.

“I can’t even hire another person or fix this problem.”

Shelly also had to juggle family life with three young children. Her husband, also a reservist, has had to spend long periods away from home.

A ceasefire in Lebanon could relieve some of the pressure. But there is still fighting in Gaza. Shelly Lotan fears for the future without a clear strategy from the Israeli government to end the conflict.

“I think the war should be over by now,” he says.