Over the recent years, the IDF has focused the majority of its budget on the Air Force and its military intelligence. However, a new shift is taking place.

Under the IDF’s new Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot and in light of negative operational reports coming from Operation Protective Edge, the IDF will now restructure their budget to allow for a significant beefing up of ground and armored forces.

The changes come due to inquiries and reports that revealed ground and armored forces of the IDF were woefully under trained and therefore unprepared for the intensity of the recent summer war with Hamas.

The report concluded that the operational unpreparedness of the army lead to a high rate of unnecessary casualties.

A senior officer in the Ground Forces told Israeli media that “it must be honestly said that the Ground Forces were not sufficiently prepared for the war. Instead of denying that, we have to improve the situation.”

As part of an internal reorganization of the army, Eisenkot instructed Deputy Chief of Staff Yair Golan to divert significant funds to the Ground Forces in order to rectify the situation before another conflict erupts.

Among some of the changes being made by the IDF is increased infantry and armored unit training and forbidding the deployment of units on operational duty at the expense of training. Top IDF officials are also attempting to convince the political hierarchy to purchase more vehicles and equipment for ground forces.

The army hopes these changes will allow the infantry and armored divisions to be better prepared for any future confrontation.

However, the restructuring, it has been rumored, will include a much smaller reserve core, as well as a major increase to the Elite Combat Engineering unit known as Yahalom.

During Operation Protective Edge, Yahalom was tasked with destroying the Gaza terror tunnels and all underground warfare. The IDF doubled this unit in terms of officers and soldiers and strengthened and advanced their technological capabilities in hopes of allowing Yahalom to function on two fronts if necessary in a coming conflict.

Now, aside from Yahalom, the IDF mandated that all infantry divisions and units need to be able to respond and deal with underground threats.

To prepare for these new threats and properly train its soldiers, the IDF has been conducting a series of large scale training exercises aimed at preparing the deterrence and counterstrike possibilities for a large scale rise in violence in Judea and Samaria.

Noting that the activities of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Fatah have increased on the ground in the region, the IDF is preparing itself should a large scale uprising, or series of violent disturbances take place in Judea and Samaria. Israel is preparing for the possibility that the Palestinian Authority itself will direct the unrest to further delegitimize Israel in the international community.