Guard Orel Lev has become the fifth University of Hawaii men’s basketball player to depart the team this year with eligibility remaining.

In Lev’s case, UH said he will not return to the team this fall due to a three-year military obligation in his native Israel.

A 6-foot-4 freshman from Tel Aviv, Lev joined UH in January and played on the scout team as a redshirt. He will have four years of eligibility remaining.

Previously, guards Bobby Miles and Shaquille Stokes and forwards Joston Thomas and Trevor Wiseman said they would not be returning.

Military service is mandatory for men and women in Israel upon turning 18 or graduating from high school, according to a spokeswoman at the press office of the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles. Men are required to serve three years and women two years.

The spokeswoman said it is “kind of rare” for someone in that category to be released to attend school overseas and then be called back but that “there are different cases.”

Center Haim Shimonovich was able to interrupt his military service to play for UH from 2001 to ’04.

Lev, who initially said he believed he would be able to continue to have his military commitment postponed, told the Star-Advertiser, “Unfortunately (the report) is right. I have to serve in the Israeli military. I want to believe that I will come back after my service, but it is far away so I really don’t know.”

“While we are disappointed that Orel won’t be able suit up for us the next three years, we completely respect the military commitment he must fulfill,” head coach Gib Arnold said in a statement.

If Lev takes up basketball again after his service, UH said he would be considered an “open recruit” able to sign with the school of his choice.

Lev has been on the Israeli junior national team. He averaged 25 points per game for Ironi Tet High School and captained the under-18 national team during the 2011 U-18 Men’s European Championships.

The Star-Advertiser’s Brian McInnis contributed to this report.