Israel occupation army fails to recruit enough soldiers for new reserve division

The Israel occupation army announced on Tuesday that it is forming a new division consisting of five brigades to ease the burden on reserve soldiers, but Israeli media revealed that it has failed to recruit the required number of soldiers.

“In this war, we have learned that the [Israeli army] needs to be larger and broader to face difficult situations and prolonged wars,” said Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi in a televised speech. “Over these months, we are establishing new brigades of reservists comprised mostly of individuals who are already over the exemption age and have shown a willingness, recognising the urgency of the moment, to step up and say we are returning to serve.”

For more than 14 months, Israel, with American support, has been committing a genocide in the Gaza Strip. It also waged a devastating war on Lebanon between 23 September and 27 November.

According to Yedioth Ahronoth, the army is facing great difficulty when it comes to recruiting volunteers for the division, as it has only been able to recruit 3,000 over the course of nine months out of the 15,000 needed. It said that the division’s “David” brigades will operate in two missions, the first of which is securing the border with Jordan and the second is “confronting explosive scenarios similar to what happened on 7 October, 2023.”

That was the day that Hamas crossed the nominal border and targeted 11 military bases and 22 settlements adjacent to Gaza, killing and capturing Israeli soldiers in response to “the daily crimes of the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people and their sanctities, especially Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

“Around 15,000 light infantry soldiers are scheduled to serve in the division, without armoured vehicles, but with personal weapons, cannons, launchers and snipers, in addition to drone crews for detection and attack,” added Yedioth Ahronoth.

It said that the division will be deployed to defend the Golan Heights, the Jordan Valley, Galilee, Jerusalem and the Negev. Soldiers will keep weapons and other equipment in their homes to enable them to provide a quick response to “explosive events”.

Israel’s ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip is the longest war that the occupation army has fought since the establishment of the Zionist state on occupied Palestinian land in 1948.

READ: Gaza hospital water tanks targeted by occupation forces