The Chief of Staff approved the operational plan to establish an haredi brigade in the IDF that will include 3,000 soldiers.
As part of this, three battalions for haredi soldiers will be established, two of them regular infantry with full service, and another haredi reserve battalion with more advanced training.
In this framework, the training of haredi reserve soldiers will last three months. Afterwards, they will be released and summoned as needed by the army.
According to the report, the plan was led by Head of the Personnel Directorate, Major General Yaniv Asor, and Commander of the Training and Doctrine Command and Commander of the General Staff Corps, Major General David Zini, along with haredi rabbis who formulated the agreements on the spiritual framework of the tracks.
It was agreed that the brigade will not include any women, will have a special admissions committee to ensure that the soldiers are indeed haredi. All commanders will be religious.
An IDF spokesperson responded, "The IDF is promoting the recruitment of haredi in various service tracks to allow them to maintain their way of life and beliefs."
"In this context, administrative work is being conducted to open additional service tracks, including possibilities to establish new frameworks. The work is at initial stages, and as it progresses, details will be published in an orderly manner to the public.
"The IDF's position remains that there is a need to recruit for military service from all parts of the population, especially in times of war, and the IDF is making great efforts to enable and promote this."