On the same scorching day last month, Israeli troops fought street battles with Hamas militants in Gaza, its fighter jets struck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon and soldiers exchanged fire with Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank.

As the war in the Gaza Strip nears its ninth month, Israel’s military is getting pulled deeper into conflicts on multiple fronts and risks becoming overstretched, analysts told AFP.

“The Israeli military is stretched to the point right now where it’s operating in Gaza and in the north and in the West Bank — and that is having a strain on its capabilities,” Rami Dajani, an expert on Israel and the Palestinian territories at the International Crisis Group (ICG), told AFP.

Israel’s army is one of the world’s best-funded militaries but it relies on reservists for much of its fighting force.

According to the Gaza War Unit Tracker, an account on social media platform X, nearly all of Israel’s 15,000 active duty combat soldiers are currently engaged in fighting.

About 10,000 of them were deployed in and around Gaza, 2,500 stationed in northern border areas and 2,500 in the West Bank, the owner of the account told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Israel also has as many as 26,000 reservists currently mobilised in active combat roles, with most of them deployed in the West Bank, the account’s owner said.

The Israeli army declined to comment on the specific numbers of its forces.