Wed 17 December 2025:

The Israeli army warned of “mass personnel exodus” amid a surge in resignation requests by officers and soldiers, local media said Tuesday, Anadolu reports.

The Israeli army is suffering from a “mass exodus of officers and non-commissioned officers after they submitted resignation requests,” the daily Yedioth Ahronoth said.

“So far, there have been 500 requests from officers and NCOs in the regular forces seeking to be relieved of their positions in the army,” the paper said, without specifying when these requests were submitted.

The army is “warning of a steady rise in resignation requests, indicating a real manpower crisis affecting all age groups and military ranks, which has now reached a boiling point.”

The Israeli army expects more resignation requests from permanent personnel serving in the regular forces, the daily said.

According to the report, the Knesset has yet to approve legal amendments allowing an increase in pension entitlements for officers and soldiers by rates ranging between 7-11%.

The newspaper explained that the 500 resignation requests were submitted by permanent personnel in regular service, not reservists, and stem from low salaries amid significant attrition from military service, particularly during the war on the Gaza Strip.

The army is “struggling to convince thousands of officers and non-commissioned officers to continue permanent service, with the expected outcome being a decline in the army’s overall performance,”

Israel has killed nearly 70,700 people, mostly women and children, and injured over 171,000 in Gaza since October 2023 and reduced the enclave to rubble.

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Another Israeli soldier commits suicide, taking death toll to 61

An Israeli soldier killed himself in a military base in northern Israel, taking the suicide-related death toll to 61 since the beginning of the Gaza war in October 2023, local media said.

According to the Haaretz newspaper, a soldier serving compulsory military service sustained critical injuries after shooting himself inside a base and was pronounced dead Tuesday evening in a hospital.

A military statement earlier said that a soldier was seriously injured in a shooting at a military base in northern Israel and was taken to the hospital, where he later died, noting that the military police had opened an investigation into the incident.

A total of 279 Israeli soldiers have attempted to commit suicide from the beginning of 2024 until July 2025, amounting to roughly one completed suicide for every seven attempts, according to a report by the Knesset Research and Information Center.

The Israeli army earlier confirmed that 48 soldiers had taken their own lives during military service since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023.

At least 13 soldiers also died of suicide outside military service due to psychological problems, including six since the beginning of this year; raising the total number of suicides since the start of the war to 61, Haaretz said.

Twenty Israeli soldiers died by suicide in 2024, and 16 others since the beginning of this year until July, Haaretz reported, noting that since then at least four additional soldiers have taken their own lives.

In October, Israeli Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir acknowledged a worsening mental health crisis within the army, saying thousands of soldiers were receiving psychological treatment. He urged commanders to stay alert, detect mental health problems within their units, and ensure that soldiers seek immediate treatment.

Nearly 10,000 Israeli soldiers out of 19,000 injured in Gaza are suffering from psychological disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder and are being treated at the Defense Ministry’s Rehabilitation Department, according to a previous report by the public broadcaster KAN published in late July.

Israel has killed nearly 70,700 victims, mostly women and children, and injured more than 171,000 in Gaza since October 2023 and reduced the enclave to rubble.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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