Zein Khalil<\/p>\n
10 May 2026\u2022Update: 10 May 2026<\/p>\n
Israeli Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir said on Sunday that the army needs more soldiers immediately,” amid the escalating crisis surrounding the conscription of ultra-Orthodox Jews, or Haredim, and the continuation of military operations on several fronts.<\/p>\n
The remarks came in a meeting of the Knesset’s (parliament) Foreign Affairs and Security Committee, according to the Yediot Ahronot newspaper.<\/p>\n
Israel is engaged in a multi-front war, including Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon, besides Gaza. Officially, the conflicts are on hold, but Israeli breaches continue unabated.<\/p>\n
“I am not preoccupied with political or legislative processes, but rather focused on the multi-front war and on defeating the enemy,” Zamir said. “To continue doing this, the Israeli army needs more soldiers immediately.”<\/p>\n
Zamir in March had warned that “the Israeli army is collapsing from within,” given the government’s failure to pass a law regulating the conscription of Haredim and reserve duty, and its failure to extend mandatory service up to 36 months.<\/p>\n
According to spokesperson Efi Defrin, the army needs approximately 15,000 additional soldiers, including between 7,000 and 8,000 combat soldiers, adding that “it is essential to enact a conscription law.”<\/p>\n
Haredi Jews make up about 13% of Israel’s population of approximately 9.9 million and do not serve in the military, instead dedicating their lives to studying the Torah.<\/p>\n
Israeli law requires all Israelis over 18 to serve in the military, and the exemption of Haredim has been a contentious issue for decades.<\/p>\n
*Writing by Rasa Evrensel in Istanbul<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zein Khalil 10 May 2026\u2022Update: 10 May 2026 Israeli Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir said on Sunday that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43,180804],"class_list":["post-435053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-sitekeywords"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}