The BBCIsrael's war on multiple fronts not only exhausted its enemy. It didn't just take the lives of thousands of civilians in Gaza and Lebanon. It also continues to extract value from its own people.
There is a growing sense of war fatigue in Israel. The recent ceasefire agreement with Lebanon will come as a relief to many. Not least for Noam Glukhovsky, an IDF reservist who spent much of the past year serving on the front lines as a medic.
We spoke to Noam, 33, in Tel Aviv before the ceasefire was announced. “We cannot continue to fight this war much longer. We simply do not have the manpower to continue without a clear end date and goal,” he said.
As an IDF reservist, Noam would normally expect to do several weeks of military service per year. But last year he spent 250 days in uniform. The war, he said, had cut him off from the life he knew. His plans to become a doctor have also been set back a year.
When we meet, Noam was trying to catch up on his studies, but he was also waiting to see if he would be called back. His mood was defiant.
“I can no longer put my life on hold,” he said. Unless there was a dramatic change in the direction of the war, he said he would not return to his unit. He was fed up.
The IDF now admits that fewer reservists are now reporting for duty. More than 300,000 reservists responded after the Hamas attacks on October 7 last year, which killed around 1,200 people. Voter turnout exceeded 100%. It is now down to 85%. Noam estimates that the response in his unit is even lower – about 60% of those called up now report for duty.
Reservists and conscripts are the lifeblood of IS. Brigadier General Ariel Hyman – also a reservist and former chief reserve officer – says Israel is too small a country to have a large, expensive, professional, regular army. Without reservists, he says, IS could not fight or survive.
According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the IDF has 170,000 active personnel, including conscripts, and 465,000 reservists.
Brigadier General Hyman acknowledges that the IDF's reliance on reserves will become increasingly challenging the longer the war drags on. He likened the IDF to a spring – if it is stretched too much, it will break. Right now he says he's doing fine.
But in a sign of tension, the IDF wants to extend mandatory service for male conscripts from 32 to 36 months.
The fact that the burden of service is not shared by all also feeds the feeling of resentment. One group has been exempt from military service for decades — thousands of Haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, Jews. They believe that the lives of their young men should be devoted to religious study rather than military service.
The issue has already divided Israel's coalition government. But after the intervention of the Attorney General, draft papers were sent to 7,000 Haredi Jews. They responded with angry protests. But Brigadier Hyman, like ousted former defense minister Yoav Gallant, says they have a “moral duty to serve”.
Not only personal sacrifice is required, but also economic.
The Bank of Israel said in May that the cost of the war to Israel could reach $70bn (£55bn) by the end of next year, an estimate made before the country's ground invasion of Lebanon. Small businesses are among the hardest hit.
Shelly Lotan's food tech startup is among many struggling to survive. Shelley has already had to move his business out of northern Israel to avoid Hezbollah rockets. Two of its seven employees are called up for military service.
The morning we meet at her home in Tel Aviv, Shelley has just received more bad news. She received a message from one of her employees whose military service was being extended.
“I just can't put into words how critical it is to have another employee missing for another month,” says Shelley.
“I can't even hire someone else or solve this gap.”
Shelley also had to juggle family life with three young children. Her husband, also a reservist, has to spend long periods away from home.
A ceasefire in Lebanon could ease some of the pressure. But there is still fighting in Gaza. Shelly Lotan fears for the future without a clear strategy from the Israeli government to end the conflict.
“I think the war should have been over by now,” she says.