IDF warns of crisis: many reserve soldiers won’t report due to recent decisions by Israel’s government

Reserve soldiers at a base in northern Israel in 2024

Yaniv Kubovich reports in Haaretz on 28 March 2025:

The Israel Defense Forces is warning about a crisis developing in the reserves amid plans to intensify the fighting in the Gaza Strip, including the calling up of tens of thousands of reservists.

Following Israel’s decision to violate the cease-fire and hostage deal, and resume combat, the army has noticed a drop in reservists’ motivation.

In the past two weeks, many reservists have told their commanders that they will not report for duty if they are called up again, due to the government’s decision to oust Shin Bet Chief Ronen Bar and change the composition of the Judicial Selection Committee, as well as its intention to oust the attorney general. The reservists also mentioned fear over the government ignoring the rulings of the High Court of Justice.

The IDF believes that the scope of the issue is far broader than known by the public, partly because many reservists are not publicly talking about their intention not to report for duty and wait for call-up notices before exercising their decision.

In recent weeks, several reservists announced, however, that they will not report for duty because of the judicial coup. One of them, combat navigator Alon Gur who served in the IAF for 16 years and has flown in all the fronts in the current war, wrote in an online statement last week,”I broke this morning. I met with my squadron commander and informed him that I’ve had it.”

“The line was crossed when the country again knowingly abandoned its citizens in broad daylight, at the point where cold cynical political considerations outweigh any other consideration, at the point where human life has lost its value, at the point where a government assassinates its gatekeepers,” Gur added. He was dismissed from service following the post, and other reservists announced that they too would stop volunteering.

Senior reservist commanders raised their concern about the trend. Some warned of a 50 percent fall in rate of reporting for reservist duty. One senior reservist who spoke to Haaretz said that brigade and battalion commanders are dealing with scores of cases in which reservists have announced that they will not report for duty. He said that, in most cases, the reason is the violation of the hostage deal. The second reason which is often mentioned is the law to exempt the ultra-Orthodox from service and the push for the judicial coup.

He added that, at this point, reserve units must take reservists from other units that are not currently engaged in combat and that, in a scenario of a widespread call-up, most of the soldiers lent out would ask to return to their own units. He said that under such conditions, many units might not be able to reach the manpower levels needed for combat.

Military exercise in Metula on 26 March 2025

Reservists who have already announced that they will stop volunteering include officers and commanders in important combat posts, intelligence and fire headquarters. A reservist squad of an elite unit recently announced that they would not report for duty in the expected call-up in a few weeks. They are a veteran reservist team which used special capabilities in Gaza and Lebanon during the war. Another reservist team from an elite unit told their commander that they were considering whether to continue volunteering. They have not yet made a decision, but they told their commander that he should be ready for a situation in which they would not report for duty.

The army is also worried about the widening “gray refusal” among reservists. These are cases in which soldiers cite health, financial or family reasons for not reporting for duty, when in fact their decision is based on moral or political motives.

A reservist officer also spoke to Haaretz about exhaustion among soldiers and commanders who have served hundreds of days of reserve duty in the past year. He said that reservists are struggling to report for duty in additional call-ups not only for political reasons, but also because they are simply tired.

“Many men prefer buying a cheap plane ticket to any destination just to have confirmation that they can not report for reserve duty,” he said. He said that senior IDF commanders don’t understand the burden reservists face and if they ignore it, men simply won’t report for duty, as we already witness.

The army realizes that dismissing hundreds of reservists is not possible, and it would be unreasonable to jail or fine them after 18 months of combat during which they put their lives on hold. The IDF believes that, in the coming days and weeks, as the fighting in Gaza intensifies and a widespread call-up of reservists becomes necessary, unit commanders will receive letters announcing non-reporting for duty, and at this time, the Israeli military does not have a solution.

Meanwhile, the army is also monitoring with concern an attempt by the parents of conscripts to prevent their service as combat soldiers in view of the government’s actions, although the army does not believe that this is a widespread issue at this time. A senior defense official said behind closed doors that many parents are pressuring young combat soldiers to move to rear-line positions.

This article is reproduced in its entirety