An agreement anchoring the new multi-year plan of the IDF and the Defense Ministry was signed on Thursday morning by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, Defense Ministry Director-General Eyal Zamir and others.
The signing of the agreement comes after understandings were reached by the involved parties in February. The new plan is meant to answer the IDF's many security and manpower challenges by including a budget outline for the coming years, thereby providing planning and budgetary stability.
The plan also includes a new model for mandatory service in the IDF, which aims to deal with demographic challenges while keeping the IDF as the "people's army."
Starting from June 2024, the length of service for men will be shortened gradually from 32 months, until in 2030 the average army service will be only 28 months, while the regular service length will be 24 months. The length of service will also correlate stronger with the type of unit the soldiers serve in.
IDF soldiers will receive higher pay
The soldier's pay will also be gradually raised. Starting in June 2024, there will be a 25% rise, another increase of 50% will be applied in January 2025 and in June 2026, another raise will be given out according to the type of unit.
"The multi-year plan will provide a response to strengthening, equipping and maintaining Israel's qualitative advantage over its enemies in the security, military, technological and intelligence fields," Defense Minister Gallant said at the signing ceremony. "We will invest in manpower in a special way in order to preserve the source of our power and we will adopt a policy that will allow increased payment for those who serve on the front lines and for a longer period of time, both in mandatory and permanent service."
"This agreement is very important, it allows the IDF to plan on a multi-year basis and to prepare better for the emerging challenges, near and far, chief among them the multi-sector challenge," IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said.
"The agreement will give the IDF additional tools to retain and develop the best and most appropriate permanent personnel, with an emphasis on the younger ranks and the combat units. There is something equally important in this agreement - for a long period of time, about a year and a half, senior IDF officials sat down with senior finance officials to study the needs of the IDF, the constraints of the Finance Ministry in planning a national budget and, above all, worked hard on creative solutions," Halevi added.