A senior IDF officer said the military is in desperate need of extending mandatory service to 36 months, warning that the manpower crisis has reached a breaking point, according to Kan News.

“We are on the edge of a cliff — it’s to be or to cease,” the senior officer said. “We do not know how to function on 30 months of service. The IDF needs 36 months of service, which would save the service of 8,000 reservists a day. Thirty-two months is the minimum required in order not to worsen the situation.”

The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee is set to discuss extending mandatory service on Thursday. In the IDF, officials are planning that if service is extended to 36 months, soldiers would receive pay of about 11,000 shekels during the additional four months. However, the report said that such a move is unlikely under the current government.

In the military, officials believe the Knesset is more likely to approve an extension to 32 months. In that case, the plan is to compensate soldiers at a rate of 200% pay during the additional two months.

Earlier Wednesday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir addressed the manpower crisis and said that already during his time as deputy chief of staff, he had warned that the IDF was nearing its minimum size relative to the threats it faces.

“We must significantly expand the ranks of the IDF so that it can meet all of the missions placed upon it,” Zamir said. “The responsibility is on all of us. The IDF needs all of us. We must not exempt ourselves from the burden of the mitzvah of defending the state. It is an operational necessity and a Zionist and moral obligation.”

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