Israeli military is set to determine the number of ultra-Orthodox conscripts it needs and the roles they will be assigned, local media reported Monday.

The authorization handed to the military will go into effect on Wednesday, when the controversial Tal Law, which for years granted the country's draft-age religious students a sweeping exemption from compulsory military service, will officially expire after it was struck down by the High Court of Justice earlier this year.

Numerous attempts in recent months to draft a new law have all hit a brick wall, leading to simmering tensions within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud-led government that came to a head two weeks ago, when Shaul Mofaz, chairman of the centrist Kadima party, announced his decision to quit the coalition over the issue.

Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya'alon last Sunday presented the government with details of a new bill aimed at increasing the number of observant Jewish men, as well as Israeli Arabs, in either military or national service, but officials estimate that it could take weeks, even months, until it is submitted to parliament and passed into a law.

Following the government's failure to meet the deadline set by the court for resolving the issue, Defense Minister Ehud Barak has ordered the military to begin preparations to accommodate a greater number of religious recruits.

Officials in Barak's office estimated that a little more than 1, 500 will be called up by the end of the year, while another 1,200 will be integrated into the civil service, a slight increase from 2011, according to the report in the Yediot Aharonot daily.

The army said plans are in the making to assign a portion of the new recruits to an infantry battalion whose soldiers strictly adhere to Jewish ritual laws. Others will assume technological vocations in the Air Force and Intelligence Corps.

Taking into account the possibility that the bill presented last week would ultimately fail to win a majority in the cabinet, the Defense Ministry has tasked a team with drafting a temporary order, to be submitted to parliament in three months, that will regularize the religious draft and determine the number of exemptions that would be granted to "exceptionally gifted" students.

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