During the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee discussion on the damage caused to the IDF by the controversy over the judicial reform issue, coalition MKs asked Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for the full data on the issue, but were refused on the grounds that there is concern that the information would leak and even reach hostile elements.
Kan News reported that the IDF commanders expressed during the discussion a concern about possible long-term damage to the military's operational competence. The IDF commanders explained that they do not yet know how to estimate the number of those who still report for duty and those who do not show up.
Major General Oded Basiuk, the head of the Strategic Planning and Cooperation Directorate, said at the hearing that "there are very few cases of refusal where you issue an order to a person and he does not show up. There are isolated cases of non-appearance, of absenteeism, but there are many more cases of notifications of cessation of volunteering."
During the discussion, MK Gadi Eisenkot, a former IDF Chief of Staff said that these acts should not be called "refusals, but rather the termination of voluntary service."
In addition, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that "there is limited damage to the IDF's competence in the short term, but there is a possibility of damage in the long term. The IDF is [currently] capable of any mission."
According to him, "The internal tensions are analyzed and studied by our enemy. Hezbollah holds the opinion that it now has greater freedom of action below the threshold of escalation."
Gallant and the IDF commanders criticized the coalition MKs and ministers who attacked the reservists: "The statements that belittle the reservists have the opposite effect" of what those who make them intend, they said