Israeli Army Discharges Thousands of Reservists Without Prior Notice

Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Monday that the Israeli army has discharged thousands of reservists in Gaza "without official notice" in an effort to allow the country's economic activity to resume. A senior officer, whose name was not disclosed by the newspaper, stated, "We do not want to overstrain the forces; additional efforts will be made to discharge more reservists based on the assessment of the situation." The newspaper noted that "without an official announcement," the Israeli army has recently reduced the scope of reserve forces to enable individuals to return to the economy, as many of the discharged reservists had not participated in the ground operation in the Gaza Strip. Prior to the start of the war on Gaza, the Israeli army had received political approval to call up 300,000 reservists.