Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth announced Monday that a broad legislative initiative is being advanced to strengthen the IDF’s manpower, including renewed efforts to pass a draft law.

Speaking in the Knesset plenum, Bismuth said that he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided—at the request of the IDF chief of staff—to move forward with a comprehensive set of laws aimed at reinforcing the army’s personnel structure.

He explained that the plan includes three coordinated pieces of legislation to be promoted together: extending mandatory service, regulating conscription, and updating reserve duty requirements. “This is a necessary step to strengthen the IDF’s manpower system,” he said.

The announcement drew sharp criticism from opposition leader and Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid, who argued that the proposal would place a heavier burden on those already serving while allowing continued exemptions for the chareidi community.

“When you talk about extending service, the draft law, and the reserves law—the meaning is longer mandatory service and more reserve duty days,” Lapid said. He added that the move is intended “to allow the chareidim to continue not serving, at a cost of billions.”

Lapid also made clear that his party plans to oppose the legislation. “We will not let this pass. We stopped previous attempts and we will stop this one as well.”

As previously reported last Friday, the effort to advance the draft law had not been abandoned but temporarily delayed due to the need to pass the state budget. In official submissions to the High Court of Justice, Bismuth and Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs stated that the delay was only technical.

According to those filings, once the budget process is completed—including tens of billions of shekels allocated to defense—the government intends to resume advancing the legislation until it is finalized.

The documents were submitted as part of petitions concerning the continued operation of the national-civil service track for yeshiva students, and they indicate that the government plans to return the conscription issue to active legislative consideration in the near future.