Articles and notes about Military service.
Military service remains voluntary on paper, but Germany’s Defense Ministry is already summoning young men to medical exams set for July 2027, including those who answered on the questionnaire that they did not want to serve. In the streets, organizers counted more than 45,000 students in some 100 cities; in the files, conscientious objection applications reached 5,862 in the first half alone.
Iran has opened a third military training center in Tehran and announced plans to train one million paramilitary volunteers nationwide, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency. Members of the Basij, a paramilitary force affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard, attended the opening, and two other centers opened in Tehran in August and September.
The doctor who reported the existence of a basement used to hold servicemen near Kyiv was detained by police during a live broadcast, according to the Russian state news agency TASS. She had insisted that the people held there be hospitalized.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) winter recruitment cycle for young haredi men entering combat support roles began Sunday morning, with a target of about 4,800 haredi recruits for the 2026 recruitment year — from July 2026 to July 2027, according to the Jerusalem Post.
Police moved to disperse protesters in Jerusalem on Sunday evening on Haim Bar-Lev Boulevard after the demonstration escalated into clashes, with demonstrators blocking roads and throwing objects at officers, according to a statement from Israel Police. The protest was against the arrest of an ultra-Orthodox man accused of draft evasion near the Mea She’arim neighborhood. No injuries or arrests were reported as of the latest police update.
Protests against compulsory military service organized by the group Gen Z regelt, which means “Generation Z takes charge” in German, were scheduled in 34 German cities on Saturday, including Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich, according to Reuters. The group says it opposes compulsory military service and wants greater investment in education. Official figures released on Saturday afternoon fell well below the 182,000 participants the organizers had expected: police in Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin registered 6,000 demonstrators, according to Reuters.
Dozens of ultra-Orthodox protesters blocked roads outside the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) central induction base on Sunday, where more than 200 members of the Haredi community were joining the army, according to Times of Israel. The Israel Police said the protesters were trying to intimidate the recruits who arrived at the Tel Hashomer base, where inductees are processed before being sent to their units. Some 230 Haredi men were expected to be drafted into the IDF for noncombat roles.
Israeli police said they were working to restore order during what they called unexpected and unlawful Haredi protests outside the Tel Hashomer base near the Kiryat Ono recruitment center on Sunday morning, and advised the public to find alternate routes until the matter was resolved, according to the Jerusalem Post.
More than 160,000 people are expected to join demonstrations across Germany on Saturday, organizers say, in a youth-led movement inspired by protests elsewhere in Europe to demand better education and lower living costs. The rallies, organized by the campaign group Gen Z regelt, are planned in 34 cities including Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich. The group says it opposes compulsory military service and wants greater investment in education.
A senior source in United Torah Judaism (UTJ) proposed backing a minority government led by Gadi Eisenkot from outside, with the party abstaining on key Knesset votes, Channel 12 reported. “Our alliance with Netanyahu has run its course,” one party official told the channel, according to Yeshiva World, adding that UTJ will get nothing from Netanyahu and that its interest is to once again become a decisive force in the Knesset. Eisenkot vowed to advance the draft law and the Oct. 7 inquiry despite slim coalition prospects, according to the Times of Israel.
The Gen Z Regelt collective has called protests in German cities for October 31, with more than 150,000 people reportedly registered, according to TRT World. The group demands more education funding, stronger climate action and a fairer distribution of social costs, and in its demands to Chancellor Merz and his coalition government asks for “money for schools instead of cuts” and “an affordable life.”
Taiwan’s overall military personnel fill rate fell from 88.6 per cent in 2020 to 78.6 per cent in 2024, then dropped further to 75.6 per cent by June, according to the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center, cited by the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
Germany received 12,102 applications for conscientious objection to military service between January and the end of August 2026, more than triple the 3,879 applications filed throughout 2025, according to the Funke and RND media groups. In July and August alone, more than 6,200 applications arrived, above the 5,862 filed in the first half of the year, the Berliner Morgenpost reported.
Witnesses describe a broad campaign of forced recruitment in Tigray, targeting men and boys between the ages of 15 and 65 — according to The Guardian. Renewed conflict erupted on September 23 between Ethiopia’s federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), breaking the November 2022 Pretoria agreement. Human Rights Watch says Tigray authorities have been abducting and unlawfully recruiting civilians, including children as young as 15, since at least April 2026.
On German Unity Day, thousands of people took part in demonstrations in Berlin and Stuttgart against the potential return of military conscription and Germany’s rearmament, according to TASS. Police estimated around 5,800 people in the German capital, while organisers say more than 20,000 took part in Berlin and about 15,000 in Stuttgart, according to the Berliner Zeitung. Participants called for the lifting of all sanctions and a halt to arms shipments, including to Ukraine, according to TASS.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree setting the authorized strength of the Russian armed forces at more than 2.44 million people, including 1.55 million service members. The ceiling is 15,500 people above the previous decree. According to the Kyiv Post, the document, No. 700, was published on Russia’s official legal information portal and is the fourth such decree signed this year, according to Russian state-owned media TASS.
More than 40,000 students took to the streets of Berlin against Germany’s proposed military service plans, some of them shredding call-up questionnaires. In more than 100 cities, the protests drew more than 45,000 students, after early call-ups for mandatory medical examinations. According to Germany’s Defence Ministry, about 1,000 young men who said they had no interest in serving have already completed the mandatory examinations since July.