'Lone soldiers': The foreign volunteers fighting in Gaza for Israel

Overseas networks are enlisting young men and women to serve in the Israeli army as part of "lone soldier" programmes, with up to 20,000 individuals thought to have travelled from the US alone to fight in Gaza since October 2023, prompted by ideological motivations and false promises.

Anna Belashov's partner was one of them. Last year, she gave testimony to the Knesset's Committee for Immigration, Absorption, and Diaspora Affairs, which deals with those who come from overseas to enlist in Israel's military, criticising her partner's treatment after being recruited through a "lone soldier" programme.

"In July 2024, I contacted the IDF's psychological support centre to request help for Vladislav. To this day, I'm still waiting for them to call back, but he's no longer with us," Belashov said on 3 December.

First Sergeant Vladislav Sergienko, a Ukrainian national, was severely traumatised while serving in the IDF's (Israel Defence Force) Paratroopers Brigade and was later found dead due to suicide.

'Gachal' and 'Machal'

On the Israeli army website, a "lone soldier" is defined as "someone serving in the army who is separated from his family for various reasons". These include those whose families live abroad, and those who are estranged from their families (even if they live inside Israel).

According to data published by the Immigration, Absorption, and Diaspora Committee in January 2023, 6,973 lone soldiers were serving in the Israeli army, 88 percent of them immigrants.

Meanwhile, 13,000 lone soldier reservists (reservists who originally did their regular army service as lone soldiers) served in Israel's war in Gaza between 7 October 2023 and December 2024.

However, according to the US-based Friends of the IDF, the number is much higher; it confirmed that 20,000 Americans have participated in the war from its inception to the present day as lone soldiers.

Approximately 3,000 lone soldiers from abroad join the Israeli military every year, according to the 2024 study "Fighting to Belong: Diaspora Soldiers, Immigration, and National Identity in Israel".

Around 40 percent of these recruits are from former Soviet Union countries, around a third are from North America, with the remainder from France, Britain, Australia, Brazil, and 50 other countries.

"The idea of ​​recruiting soldiers from abroad dates back to 1948," Yasser Manna, a researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Studies on Israeli Affairs, told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed. The majority of these soldiers were recruited as "overseas draftees" ("Gachal"), a term used during the 1948 war for Jews recruited from Europe and North Africa, many of whom were Holocaust survivors who then fought in Israel's "War of Independence".

There were around 20,000 "Gachal" soldiers, constituting nearly a quarter of the army at the time, according to the 1995 study "The Fighting Gachal" by Yaakov Markowitzky.

"Overseas volunteers" programmes (known as "Machal") also started in 1948 and became an active mechanism for promoting military volunteerism in the nascent Israeli military, though the numbers were smaller than those who came as part of Gachal recruitment. Machal recruits were Jews and non-Jews from abroad who had been horrified by the Holocaust and wanted to help ensure the survival of the "Jewish State".

Machal programmes continue today, including many of the current "lone soldier" programmes which appeal to young, non-Israeli Jewish men and women to come to serve in the Israeli military. 

Recruitment networks

Several Zionist organisations in Israel actively recruit lone soldiers, most notably one linked to Israel's Boy Scouts movement, which translates roughly to "Cactus Core", which encourages young people from North America, Europe, Australia, and Russia to enlist in Israel's military.

It provides them with housing, language training, and administrative and military preparation before and during service, according to Fadi Nahhas, a lecturer on Israeli studies at Birzeit University.

Several US and European organisations also work to support the recruitment of non-Israeli Jews into the Israeli army. Nefesh B'Nefesh and Friends of the IDF are two such organisations, both based in the US, offering comprehensive packages of support based on financial grants, as well as vouchers, special vacations, and travel tickets for soldiers after a period of service.

Disillusioned

However, enticing promises of generous benefits and support clash with the reality of the deep pre-existing social and economic cracks in Israeli society, Nahhas explains, which lone recruits are particularly vulnerable to due to their lack of a social support network inside Israel.

Many testimonies attest to this, like Maya Pressler's. She told the Knesset on 3 December 2024 that she had broken her hand while serving in a combat unit in Gaza for over 200 days since October 7, 2023, but had received no support.

Posts on the Facebook group "Good People in the Service of Lone Soldiers" published between January - April 2025 also include the case of Rifkat Lieber, who sought help for a female lone soldier with a leg injury living alone in Ra'anana, who needed help to get to a medical clinic.

Even the lone soldiers' minimal needs appear to have been ignored. David Niland resorted to Facebook to request a size 44-45 boot for a lone soldier whose shoe was torn in combat. Karina Axelrod, a Russian soldier serving in one of the IDF's intelligence-gathering units, posted that she was looking for a belt for her bulletproof vest after her battalion had refused to provide it.

The posts also highlight other complaints from lone soldiers. Daniel Levy, who was wounded while serving with the Givati ​​Brigade, posted that he is facing criminal prosecution by the IDF, which has attempted to open an allegedly fabricated case against him, and has requested legal support to help him, as he couldn't afford to hire a lawyer.

While anecdotal, the posts reveal the disillusionment felt by lone soldiers as they discover the gulf between their expectations - based on the recruitment programmes' rosy depictions of how they will be supported - and reality.

In 2021, researcher Karina Shklyan of the Department of Sociology at the University of California published a study titled "Disillusioned Defenders? The Integration Challenges of American Jewish Return Migrants in the Israel Defense Forces" based on interviews with 52 lone soldiers.

Many reported feeling marginalised and alienated, with some resorting to hiding their American accents or withdrawing into American-only social groups, and choosing to leave after service rather than staying and settling.

Promoting immigration and diaspora Zionism

Nahhas pointed to two basic ideas behind Israel's dedication to recruiting lone soldiers, the first of which is to strengthen Jewish immigration to Palestine.

Dr Mahmud Muharib, a researcher in Israeli security affairs in the Arab Centre for Research and Policy Studies, says the ideological stance of some lone soldiers prompts them to settle longer-term, especially in illegal settlements in occupied Palestinian territory, where they receive additional privileges and exemptions from the state, which, as people with no social networks or capital, is appreciated by these new arrivals.

The second idea, says Nahhas, is linking world Jewry to the Zionist project and one of its core tenets: military service.

On this point, Mtanes Shehadeh, a professor of political economy and Israeli affairs at the Arab Centre for Applied Social Studies (Mada Al-Carmel), explains that the principle of "a common destiny" for world Jewry was a major theoretical principle of the "Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel" in 1948, and one of its practical applications was an attempt to integrate diaspora Jews into Israeli military, political, and economic projects - including military service.

For those who come, factors such as social marginalisation, academic failure, family problems, and the search for status have also played a role for some aspiring lone soldiers.

This is especially the case for those from the US, whereas motivations differ starkly for young Jews coming from former Soviet Union states, many of whom have participated in long-term immigration programmes and are driven primarily by economic motives, with military service representing an entry visa for them; they are therefore more inclined to settle than American nationals.

This is an edited translation from our Arabic edition. To read the original article, click here.

Translated by Rose Chacko   

This article is taken from our Arabic sister publication, Al-Araby Al Jadeed and mirrors the source's original editorial guidelines and reporting policies. Any requests for correction or comment will be forwarded to the original authors and editors.

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