Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported some 1,000 soldiers are transferred every month to the Defense Ministry’s rehabilitation department due to injuries sustained in the Gaza war.
“The army is suffering from a shortage of at least 10,000 soldiers killed or wounded during the long months of fighting in the Gaza Strip,” the daily said.
The paper criticized the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) for going on summer break from July 22 until mid-October without passing legislation to extend mandatory military service.
“There has been no such a situation in the history of Israel’s wars…where soldiers fight inside enemy territory, under unfavorable conditions, for 10 consecutive months,” the mother of an Israeli soldier in the army’s Nahal Brigade told Yedioth Ahronoth.
According to the newspaper, female soldiers serving in Israel-occupied Syrian Golan Heights were unexpectedly informed of an additional four-month extension of their service.
Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an attack last October by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.
Nearly 39,600 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and nearly 91,400 injured, according to local health authorities.
Almost 10 months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice for its actions in the coastal enclave.
