IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir on Wednesday again said that the military must expand its ranks and draft more ultra-Orthodox soldiers, as data showed an increase in Haredi enlistment over the past year that still fell short of the army’s target number.
Speaking on the Lebanon border to commanders of the Hasmonean Brigade, which is meant to accommodate ultra-Orthodox troops, Zamir said, “One of the lessons we learned from October 7 is that the IDF must grow, expand, and become stronger.”
“We must increase our ground combat forces and build more battalions and brigades that know how to fight, defeat the enemy, and defend the State of Israel,” he said, according to remarks published by the army.
Zamir told the Haredi commanders that the military’s goal is to “enable you to serve in the IDF while preserving your way of life.”
“Your integration into the IDF is vital to the security of the State of Israel and to the entire people of Israel,” he said.
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Haredi leaders have militated against enlistment, claiming that serving in the military will tempt ultra-Orthodox soldiers to become less religious and abandon observances surrounding modesty, gender segregation, prayer, kosher food, and other areas of Jewish law.
Soldiers from the Hasmonean Brigade take part in a ceremony at the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City on August 6, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/ Flash90/ File)
Zamir noted that the IDF has seen “an increase in the enlistment of Haredim into the IDF, in both combat units and combat support units.”
In the past year, at least 4,000 ultra-Orthodox soldiers have been drafted to the IDF, according to the military’s data, an increase of some 1,200 troops compared to the previous 12 months.
The military said Wednesday that the data is not yet final, as the July 2025-July 2026 draft period has not yet been completed. Still, the IDF appears to be getting closer to its goal of drafting 4,800 Haredi soldiers per year.
Before the war, which began with Hamas’s onslaught on October 7, 2023, around 1,800 Haredi soldiers were drafted annually.
Between July 2023 and July 2024, some 2,200 Haredi men were drafted to the IDF. A year later, in the period ending in July 2025, that number reached 2,800.
Thousands of ultra-Orthodox men protest outside the Neve Tzedek military prison in central Israel, against the arrest of Haredi draft evaders, July 16, 2026. (Tal Gal/Flash90)
The IDF’s numbers may be inaccurate, as the data on who is counted as ultra-Orthodox is drawn from the education system, which lies outside its purview.
Still, the apparent uptick came even as the ultra-Orthodox community has waged a major campaign in recent months against Haredi youth serving in the military, including forcing through contentious legislation aimed at thwarting efforts to draft them or penalize draft dodgers.
Haredi men have long been granted blanket exemptions from IDF service, and the dispute about ultra-Orthodox conscription is one of the most contentious in Israel, with decades of governmental and judicial attempts to settle the issue having failed to achieve a resolution. The Haredi religious and political leadership fiercely resists any effort to draft the community’s young men.
Around 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged 18 to 24 are currently believed to be eligible for military service, but have not enlisted. The IDF has said repeatedly that it urgently needs 12,000 new recruits during the ongoing multifront conflict.
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