Gallant at FADC: Unlike planes, we can't bring soldiers from overseas
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant speaks during a press conference at Hakirya base in Tel Aviv on May 15, 2024.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that unlike aircraft and munitions, Israel cannot purchase soldiers from foreign countries, and must draft from its own population.
He lamented that 6,700 soldiers were being released from duty on Monday because a deadline to extend their service had expired and the Knesset and the government have been frozen and unable to act due to disagreements over how to integrate haredim into the IDF and national service.
Instead of passing his new bill which he proposed in February which would have extended mandatory service from 32 months to 36 months for male Israelis, mandatory service on Monday dropped down to 30 months because of a bill passed long before October 7, 2023.
Gallant says IDF lost an entire brigade worth of soldiers
Prior to the current war, the national feeling and trend was that Israel was safer than ever before and that technology for defense and with the air force meant that the infantry forces could be much smaller, which in turn meant that fewer soldiers were needed, and everyone could serve less time.
ORTHODOX SOLDIERS participate in an IDF swearing-in ceremony in Jerusalem. (credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
ORTHODOX SOLDIERS participate in an IDF swearing-in ceremony in Jerusalem. (credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
However, Gallant said that now that the IDF has lost an entire brigade's worth of soldiers (a brigade is usually around 1,000 soldiers), only counting those dead and without even counting the much larger number of wounded, more service is needed from everyone.
He said that this means longer mandatory service, longer reserve service, and an influx of new recruits from the Haredi community.
The defense minister implored the FADC to extend the service of both mandatory and reservist soldiers as well as to address the Haredi integration issue because "the IDF is for everyone."