The IDF is set to require soldiers to enter reserve duty immediately upon their discharge from regular mandatory service, N12 News reported on Sunday.
According to N12, the enactment of the reserve draft order (Tzav 8), which the military is using as a coping method for the manpower shortage, would essentially extend a soldier’s service by about two months.
Israel’s mandatory military service is set to be reduced to 30 months in January 2027, N12 reported, noting that the IDF will use the reserve draft order as a temporary measure if the Knesset does not extend mandatory service before the government’s potential dissolution.
While the January 2027 measure will worsen the existing manpower shortage, many in the IDF see extending mandatory service as unfair, according ot N12.
“It is illogical and unreasonable in a democratic country to bring in reserve soldiers for another hundred days of reserve duty this year, already in the third year,” a senior IDF official told N12.
The enactment of the reserve draft order would further burden Israel’s economy, N12 noted, tripling the cost per soldier.
This is a developing story.
