Some 300,000 reservists have been called up since the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, according to the army, 18 percent of them men over 40 who should have been exempted.
Military service is mandatory from the age of 18 for Israeli men and women, though several exemptions apply.
Israel is waging a multi-front war against Hamas in Gaza and Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Since the military launched its ground offensive in Gaza on October 27 last year, it has lost 367 soldiers in the campaign, while 37 have died in Lebanon since Israel began ground operations there on September 30.
Periods of reserve duty have been extended, and some reservists complain they are unable to go on with their normal lives for up to six straight months.
"We're drowning," said reservist Ariel Seri-Levy in a social media post shared thousands of times.
He said he had been called up four times since the October 7 attack, and called out those who want Israel to "stay in Lebanon and Gaza".
"We have to end this war because we are out of soldiers," he said, adding that while he still believed in serving one's country, "the concessions have become too great".
Another reservist and father of two told AFP under condition of anonymity that "to fatigue and moral exhaustion is added the fact that I lost my job".
Many freelance workers have had to close shop because of the war, even if the government guarantees a minimum income for reservists.
"The collective is still above the individual but the cost is too great for my family," the reservist said, adding that he spent nearly six months in Gaza this year.
- Ultra-Orthodox exemptions -
The ongoing war has inflamed the public debate on drafting ultra-Orthodox Jews, many of whom are exempted from military service.
The ultra-Orthodox account for 14 percent of Israel's Jewish population, according to the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI), representing about 1.3 million people. About 66,000 of those of conscription age are exempted, according to the army.
Under a rule adopted at Israel's creation in 1948, when it applied to only 400 people, the ultra-Orthodox have historically been exempted from military service if they dedicate themselves to the study of sacred Jewish texts.
In June, Israel's Supreme Court ordered the draft of yeshiva (seminary) students after deciding the government could not keep up the exemption "without an adequate legal framework".
Ultra-Orthodox political parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition called for such a framework before a vote on the budget at the end of the year.
Aryeh Deri, leader of the Sephardi ultra-Orthodox party Shas, said he hoped "to solve the problem of the draft" for seminary students.
- 'Lighten the load' -
Some 2,000 wives of reservists from the religious Zionist movement, which combines religious lifestyle with army participation, signed an open letter asking to "lighten the load for those who serve".
"There is no contradiction between Torah study and military service, both go hand in hand," academic Tehila Elitzur, mother and wife of a reservist, told the Yediot Aharonot newspaper.
Six men who had volunteered despite being eligible for exemptions were killed in combat between October 22 and 28, including a father of 10.
David Zenou, a 52-year-old rabbi who fought for 250 days this year, including several weeks in Lebanon, said: "It's an honour to serve my country, and I will continue to do it for as long as I can.
"Above all, let's not forget that this is war and we are short on soldiers," the father of seven and grandfather of six told AFP.
Israel cabinet discusses Lebanon truce framework: minister
Jerusalem (AFP) Oct 30, 2024 -
Israel's security cabinet is discussing the terms of a truce with Hezbollah in south Lebanon, where Israeli troops are conducting a ground offensive, Energy Minister Eli Cohen said on Wednesday.
"There are discussions, I think it will still take time," Cohen told Israeli public radio.
According to Israel's Channel 12 television, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held talks with ministers on Tuesday evening on Israel's demands in return for a 60-day truce.
These include a Hezbollah pullback to north of the Litani River, some 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the Israeli frontier, the Lebanese army's deployment along the border, an international intervention mechanism to enforce the truce, and a guarantee that Israel will maintain freedom of action in case of threats.
"Thanks to all the army's operations these past months and particularly these past weeks... Israel can come in a position of strength after the entire Hezbollah leadership was eliminated and over 2,000 Hezbollah terrorist infrastructures were hit," said Cohen, a former intelligence minister.
According to Israeli media, US President Joe Biden's Middle East adviser Brett McGurk and special envoy Amos Hochstein will head to the region Wednesday to meet Netanyahu and other Israeli officials to discuss conditions for a ceasefire with Hezbollah.
Their goal is to implement the deal prepared by Hochstein, which is based on UN Security Council Resolution 1701.
According to the resolution, which brought an end to Israel's last war with Hezbollah in 2006, only the Lebanese army and UN peacekeeping force UNIFIL would be deployed in areas south of Lebanon's Litani River near the Israeli border.
Israeli pundits say that an end to hostilities is within reach now that the Israeli army has considerably eroded Hezbollah's military capability.
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Tuesday that Hezbollah's "residual capabilities in terms of missiles and rockets" were estimated to be at 20 percent, and added that it had been "pushed back from all villages" on the border with Israel.
Despite these setbacks, Hezbollah on Wednesday fired a surface-to-surface missile, setting off alert sirens in many towns and villages of north and central Israel as far as Netanya, north of Tel Aviv.
The missile disintegrated while airborne and did not cause casualties, the army said.
The war in Lebanon began late last month, nearly a year after Hezbollah began low-intensity cross-border fire into Israel in support of Hamas following its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
The war has killed at least 1,754 people in Lebanon since September 23, according to an AFP tally of health ministry figures, although the real number is likely to be higher due to gaps in the data.
Israel's military says it has lost 37 soldiers in its Lebanon campaign since it launched ground operations on September 30.
Strikes hit Lebanon's Baalbek after Israel evacuation call
Baalbek (AFP) Oct 30, 2024 -
Strikes rocked the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek and its outskirts on Wednesday, an AFP correspondent reported, hours after Israel issued an evacuation call for the area.
Baalbek mayor Mustafa al-Shall confirmed strikes hit the city and its surroundings, while state media said "enemy warplanes launched a series of strikes on the Asira area of the city of Baalbek" and in a nearby town.
Earlier Wednesday, Baalbek residents rushed out of their homes after the Israeli army ordered Lebanon's biggest eastern city and its outskirts evacuated for the first time in more than a month of war.
The Israeli army urged residents of Baalbek and surrounding villages to leave immediately, warning it was preparing attacks on Hezbollah targets.
The main roads out of the city were jammed with vehicles as civilians fled in panic, an AFP correspondent reported.
Civil defence vehicles drove around the city urging everyone to leave immediately over loudspeaker. Mosques and churches delivered the same message over their loudspeakers.
The city was almost empty, the correspondent said about an hour after the evacuation warning.
Before the evacuation order, the war had forced 60 percent of its estimated 250,000 residents to flee, an official previously told AFP, while the rest were mainly crammed into the city's few Sunni-majority neighbourhoods.
"The (Israeli army) will act forcefully against Hezbollah interests within your city and villages", military spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X.
The post included a map of the entire city and its outskirts.
Known as Heliopolis (City of the Sun) in ancient times, Baalbek boasts one of the world's largest complex of Roman temples -- designated a World Heritage site by UNESCO.
On Monday, Lebanon's health ministry said at least 60 people were killed in Israeli raids on the eastern Bekaa Valley, most of them in the Baalbek region.
After nearly a year of cross-border fire with Hezbollah, Israel last month ramped up strikes on the group's strongholds and then sent ground forces across the border.
The war has killed at least 1,754 people in Lebanon since September 23, according to an AFP tally of health ministry figures, though the real number is likely to be higher due to gaps in the data.
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