Israeli army plans to call up thousands of reservists for rotating deployment along the increasingly tense and chaotic Egyptian and Syrian borders.

Several attacks out of the increasingly lawless Sinai Peninsula since last year's overthrow of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and the prospect of Syrians fleeing towards Israeli territory, have left Israeli military planners scrambling to allocate more personnel and hardware to better cover the borders.

A reservist support group leader told the Ma'ariv daily that plans to call up 22 battalions-worth of personnel for the second time in under three years made an already tough stint in khakis even tougher.

"We serve with the Home Front Command and received a call-up notice for 25 days on the western border," the individual said, adding that "we already served in the Jenin area (in the West Bank) two years ago, and I thought we wouldn't get called again until next year."

The so-called "Reserve Law," which was passed in parliament in 2009 following public pressure to ease the burden on the army's reserves forces, limits call-ups to a single operational stint within a three-year period, and a week-long training maneuver every year, excluding any emergency call-up. The law also capped reserve duty to age 40.

The Defense Ministry sought special approval from parliament's foreign affairs and defense committee to call up the battalions.

"We won't have a choice but to change the law and enlist more reservists for active duty. It's already an operational necessity in light of recent events," a senior military source said last August in the aftermath of an attack carried out by Gaza militants near the Red Sea resort city of Eilat in which six Israeli civilians and two soldiers were killed.

"Due to situation assessments, a number of battalions were called up for reserve service for the second time within three years. The move was legally approved by the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee," the military said in a statement.

In discussions that preceded the army's decision, the question was whether to shift regular conscripts doing their mandatory three-year service from training to deploy along the border, or to call up reservists for a second time.

So far, only six battalions have received notice, mainly due to financial considerations. Calling up a battalion costs hundreds of thousands of shekels, according to the report.