The Israeli army has found itself dealing with a rather embarrassing security problem: its own soldiers have been walking away with military weapons, ammunition and equipment, leaving the occupation forces to launch a nationwide campaign asking them to kindly return what they took.
And to make the offer more attractive, the army has promised not to ask for names or pursue criminal charges.
According to Israeli media, the military has already recovered an astonishing 51,490 items from regular and reserve soldiers who had retained equipment during their service.
The collection includes approximately 28,500 rounds of ammunition, 250 hand grenades, 300 explosive devices and 34 firearms. Hundreds of pieces of military and medical equipment have also been returned, alongside nearly 2,000 items of military clothing and footwear.
Apparently, leaving the army with a spare uniform is one thing. Leaving with grenades and explosives is quite another.
An Army That Needs 65 Collection Centres to Recover Its Own Equipment
The Israeli military has established approximately 65 collection centres at bases across the country, allowing serving soldiers and reservists to return weapons and equipment without identifying themselves or facing prosecution.
It is an extraordinary arrangement for a military organisation: thousands of potentially dangerous items have found their way out of official custody, and the solution is essentially an anonymous returns counter.
Brigadier General Hai Kfir, head of the army’s supply and logistics division, warned of the dangers posed by keeping ammunition and weapons inside residential homes.
According to Israeli media, Kfir confirmed that the campaign would continue, with collection centres remaining open to receive additional military equipment.
The fact that the army has recovered tens of thousands of items, including hundreds of grenades and explosive devices, raises obvious questions about how effectively its personnel and military supplies were being monitored in the first place.
Meanwhile, Someone Managed to Steal an Entire Military Humvee
As though missing ammunition and grenades were not embarrassing enough, Israeli media also revealed that a military Humvee had been stolen from the Julis military base in southern Israel.
Unlike a few missing bullets, an entire military vehicle is considerably harder to misplace.
The Humvee, stolen the previous week, was eventually discovered inside a storage warehouse in the Ami Oz settlement.
Locating it reportedly required intelligence information, assistance from a drone and scanning equipment.
The Israeli military said suspects had been identified and their details referred for investigation.
The circumstances surrounding the vehicle’s disappearance were particularly unusual.
According to the reports, the missing Humvee was discovered after a similar vehicle was brought into the maintenance department and a repair order was registered without the vehicle actually being inspected.
The incident prompted the army to launch search operations and impose a curfew on members of Battalion 652, the unit responsible for maintaining engineering equipment and armoured vehicles.
While the military continues investigating the stolen vehicle, its broader campaign to recover weapons and equipment remains open.
For an army equipped with sophisticated surveillance systems and military technology, having to use intelligence, drones and scanning equipment to locate one of its own stolen vehicles is hardly a flattering advertisement for internal security.
And with more than 51,000 items already recovered from its own personnel, the Israeli military’s latest security challenge appears to be much closer to home than it would probably care to admit.
