Jerusalem:

The Israeli government’s security cabinet has approved a plan to extend compulsory military service for men to 36 months from the current 32 months, Israel’s Ynet news outlet reported on Friday.

The 36-month rule will stay in force for the next eight years, Ynet reported, after a meeting of the security cabinet that took place late on Thursday.

The measure is likely to be submitted to a vote in a meeting of the full cabinet on Sunday, it said.

Israel’s military commanders have said they need to boost manpower so they can sustain the war with the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza and a confrontation with the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militia.

In a separate initiative, Israel is planning to send draft notices to thousands of ultra-Orthodox seminary students who were previously exempt from military service.

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A house lies in ruins in the border area of Shebaa in southern Lebanon, following an Israeli strike on April 27, 2024 , amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants in Gaza.
| Photo Credit: AFP

UNICEF, the children’s agency of the UN, said on April 30 that conflict on Lebanon’s border between Hezbollah militant group and Israel was taking a heavy toll on children, with thousands out of school and healthcare “critically impacted”.

“We are deeply alarmed by the situation of children and families who have been forced from their homes,” Edouard Beigbeder, the Lebanon representative for UNICEF, said in a statement. He also highlighted “the profound long-term impact the violence is taking on children’s safety, health and access to education”.

“We call for an immediate ceasefire and the protection of children and civilians,” he said. “We must redouble our efforts to make sure every child in Lebanon is in school and learning, is protected from physical and mental harm, and has the opportunity to thrive.”

Eight children have been killed in Lebanon and 75 wounded since hostilities started following Israel’s war on Gaza, UNICEF said, citing figures from the country’s Health Ministry.

More than 92,000 people, almost a third of them children, have meanwhile been displaced, according to the UN’s migration agency. “Should this conflict continue to escalate… the repercussions for children will be devastating,” UNICEF spokesperson James Elder told a press conference in Geneva.