Israel army recalls reservists to confront troop shortage

The Israeli occupation army has recalled reservists who had finished their army service or been issued with exemptions to overcome the shortage in troop numbers amid its ongoing war in the besieged Gaza Strip and its renewed bombing of Lebanon, local media reported.

The Hebrew Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said yesterday that the Israeli army had to summon Israelis who had been discharged from the army years ago, or had been exempted from service over the past few years.

A letter to reservists said the army has been in a state of war for several months, adding that for security reasons, and to expand the circle of service, the reasons for which the reservists had been exempted from service no longer apply.

A soldier who served as a medic in the 769th Brigade Battalion in the north between 2010 and 2013 said: “The general idea is that it would have made a difference if they had sent this letter 11 months ago and not now. It seems as if the army has been exhausted to the limit, and now we have to recruit new people who will come, instead of exhausted and wounded people.”

“I feel like I’ve been drafted into an army that has no plan – where I’m assigned, where I’m going,” he told the newspaper.

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