Breakdown in trust over supply of military equipment leading reservists to take home gear – report

Unnamed senior military officers tell the Walla news site that the massive delays in getting military equipment to reservists at the start of the war has led to many taking supplies home with them when released from duty, so that they are prepared for when they are next called in to serve.

The officers tell the outlet that the situation is a reflection on the breakdown in trust between reservists and senior leadership.

“The crisis is reflected in the fact that soldiers took valuable equipment to their homes at the end of their reserve duty in preparation for the next operational deployment, or if a war breaks out in the north,” they say.

“The call-up [at the start of the war] was traumatic. There were huge shortages,” an officer says. “Everyone was afraid of entering Gaza without the proper equipment, so they started fundraising for donations.”

“A very large portion of the equipment came from donations and because there was no control over it and no registration of it, it was then taken home by the soldiers,” an officer says.

Some 360,000 reserve soldiers were mobilized when Hamas launched its brutal assault on October 7.

Soldiers and units from across the army said they received substandard military equipment and weapons, and there was a particular lack of vests with ceramic plates, which protect against bullets and shrapnel.

Civilian groups quickly sprang up to raise funds for, buy, and distribute that equipment directly to the troops.