The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that "Israeli forces are fighting an invisible enemy on the northern front."

The newspaper quoted Alon Britan, a platoon commander, as saying: "There is a feeling that we are sitting ducks because the average soldier does not understand big-picture tactics." 

"The results will be dire if the authorities do not find solutions for the reserve soldiers and there will be less willingness to report for reserve service," a reserve soldier was quoted as saying. 

Concerns about reservists and reserve service have been making headlines way before the start of the Israeli aggression on Gaza. However, the ongoing regional tensions have prompted far more concerns than previously even thought about.

The General Staff of the Israeli occupation forces are facing paramount criticism from the reserve brigades of the IOF due to the mistreatment the latter are subjected to, Israeli media reported last week.

The IOF reportedly does not have a plan for the future of the reservists, which has been the cause of growing dissatisfaction among their ranks.

Reservists dissatisfied

According to Israeli Walla! military commentator, Amir Bohbot, "Reserve officers are displeased with the fact that, despite their continued reserve service for a period ranging from 80 to 90 days on average, no general plan has been presented to them for the coming year."

In a similar vein, Bohbot underlined that not one senior Israeli official "has spoken to the reserve officers about their upcoming combat role, and as a result, their families are left in suspense, and so are companies, educational institutions, and so on."

Fear creeping in from the north

A report published in The Washington Post addressed the crisis faced by Israeli settlers amid the military escalation on the northern front with Hezbollah in Lebanon for about three months, which has led thousands of them to evacuate their settlements, fearing Resistance operations.

"This is not an official war zone. Yet explosions from Israeli artillery and Hezbollah missiles echo across the rock-strewn mountains nearly every day," the report read.

David Shtift, an Israeli settler in Kibbutz "Eilon", was quoted as saying, "What happened in the south [i.e in Gaza] was exactly what we were saying could happen here [in northern Palestine], and still could."

The report claimed that at least 70,000 Israeli settlers had evacuated settlements in the north in the wake of the operations of the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon, turning the area into a closed military zone. It noted that several Israeli battalions comprising thousands of soldiers have been deployed there instead.

According to the Post, the Israeli assassination of the Deputy Head of the Political Bureau of Hamas, Saleh al-Arouri, in Beirut "heightened fears in the region that the skirmishes along this volatile borderland could explode into all-out war."

The report noted that "Israel" regards Hezbollah "as a proper army with sophisticated training and an arsenal of some 150,000 missiles," adding that many Israeli settlers fear that the Israeli government is, once again, underestimating a deadly threat.