05:56 PM
Thursday 07 March 2024
Written by: Salma Samir
The Israeli war on the Gaza Strip is entering its sixth month, in a completely different way from the previous months, with the developments in the fighting on the ground affecting the balance of power little by little, the most prominent of which is the decrease in the number of Israeli army soldiers.
The problem emerged clearly during the discussion of the issue of extending the service period of reserve soldiers who were called up at the beginning of the war for an additional period, due to the crisis that the army is currently suffering from as a result of pushing its forces south into Gaza and north on the border with Lebanon, and a confirmation that Israel’s technological progress will not be enough for it to win. A war without a sufficient number of troops.
Collapse of illusion
The confirmation came from the leader of the Israeli opposition, Yair Lapid, during the Israeli Knesset session, saying: “The myth that Israel possesses a small, smart army with advanced technology that can overcome the problem of the lack of military forces has collapsed completely, just as the separation wall collapsed on October 7 in front of Hamas.”
The leader of the Yesh Atid party completed his speech during the discussion of the issue of recruiting Haredi Jews into the Israeli occupation army, by calling for a significant acceleration in increasing the number of army soldiers, pointing out at the same time that the military establishment in Israel does not have the slightest idea about managing these numbers.
In order to maintain the strength of the army in terms of soldiers, Israel has fought wars and military operations from a distance for more than 20 years, in which it relied mainly on air operations in which it launched raids using guided and unguided bombs in order to annihilate its targets, a weapon that will not always be effective in all environments. As well as the Gaza Strip, according to the French newspaper Le Monde.
Number of Israeli army forces
In addition to the previous considerations, the ground war that the Israeli occupation army is waging against Gaza at the present time is a war that has no parallel at any previous time, and in which Israel actually pushed its soldiers into the battlefield in direct confrontation with the Palestinian resistance, which it broadcasts widely. Daily videos of them being captured from the top of tanks, inside homes, and in elaborate ambushes in which dozens have been injured and killed every day since the Israeli forces set foot on Gaza.
The number of Israeli army personnel currently amounts to 169,000 people, including 126,000 in the infantry forces and the rest in the air forces and navy, according to a report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).
Although the number of people holding Israeli citizenship has exceeded the threshold of 9 million people, the entity cannot nevertheless form an army of one million people like China and India, according to what a former Indian Air Force officer, Uttam Kumar Devnath, told the Russian “Sputnik” agency, who said that the Israeli army Despite its technological advancement, it is not devoid of weaknesses, so it relies entirely on the reserve soldiers it summoned at the beginning of the war, who number 400,000 people.
Reserve soldiers occupy more than half of the capacity of the Israeli army, according to Devnath, who warned that they do not have any fitness or military training that would enable them to understand battlefield tactics or confront them, saying, “Reserve soldiers are nothing but ordinary people who underwent compulsory service in order to resume a normal civilian life.” .
Blitzkrieg
“Blitzkrieg wars” This term was used by Lieutenant General Saad Eddin Al-Shazly during a previous interview in which he revealed a strategy used by the Israeli army during its wars, in which it cannot fight a full-fledged, long-lasting war, saying: “The Israeli army in all its previous wars always He did not launch quick wars that would end within 4 or 6 weeks at most.”
In the period of 2009, when Al-Shazli conducted his interview, Israel was mobilizing the army in its wars at an estimated rate of 18% of the Israeli people, in order to fight the war, a percentage that Al-Shazli described at the time as “extremely large,” given the complete paralysis witnessed by the economic situation in the country at that time. Period, which causes the entity to suffer two “deaths” that cannot be solved: the small number of soldiers and long-term wars.
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