'I can't put my life on hold' - Israel's war-weary reservists look for an end to fighting
Noam Glukhovsky is reluctant to return to the front line and wants to catch up on his medical studies
Israel’s war on multiple fronts has not just worn down its enemy. It's not just taken the lives of thousands of civilians in Gaza and Lebanon. It’s also continuing to extract a price from its own people.
There’s a growing sense of war weariness in Israel. The recent ceasefire deal with Lebanon will be a relief for many. Not least for Noam Glukhovsky – an IDF reservist, who’s spent much of the past year serving on the front line as a medic.
We spoke to Noam, 33, in Tel Aviv before the ceasefire was announced. “We can’t keep doing this war for much longer. We just don’t have the manpower to keep going on without a clear end date and goal,” he said.
As an IDF reservist Noam would normally expect to do a few weeks of military service a year. But this past year he’s spent 250 days in uniform. The war, he said, had ripped him away from the life he knew. His plans to become a doctor have also been set back by a year.
When we meet Noam was trying to catch up with his studies, but also waiting to see whether he’d be called up again. His mood was defiant.
“I can’t put my life on hold anymore,” he said. Unless there was a dramatic change in the direction of the war, he said he wouldn’t be returning to his unit. He’d had enough.
FULL ARTICLE AT: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62jpzmreyqo
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