"Mission cancelled due to lack of manpower."
These words came through too many times before our Shalav Bet unit arrived. Food, water, and critical supplies sat waiting while trucks remained parked. Every convoy into Gaza requires armed escorts, combat soldiers positioned at the front and rear of each caravan. The math was simple and unforgiving: no extra soldiers meant no armed escorts, which meant no missions.
We solved the manpower problem. Then we hit the equipment wall.
Gaza operations demand specific gear: ceramic plates and helmets meeting current combat standards. Our unit carried combat soldier status but wore equipment from another era. The vests we had couldn't accommodate ceramic plates. Worse, we lacked enough plates for everyone who needed to go in. Mission days became scavenger hunts across the base, borrowing from other units, piecing together what we needed to make each convoy happen.
Several donors stepped forward and purchased new equipment for our group. Missions stopped getting cancelled. But the solution only covered our immediate needs, not the expanding operational requirements.
The IDF has more soldiers in active service now than at any point in recent history. Combat has damaged and destroyed vests and helmets at rates the supply system struggles to match. The army allocates resources as best it can, prioritizing where gear is most critical. The gap between what exists and what's needed grows wider during extended operations.
Donors found a different path. Instead of giving funds to the army's general supply system, they began purchasing equipment directly for specific soldiers and units. This approach gave soldiers their own gear, equipment they could depend on whenever called to serve. The model shifted from institutional supply to direct provision.
These donors now function as part of the operational supply chain. They provide ceramic plates, updated vests, helmets, communication equipment. They fund meals when base kitchens run short. They support families when reserve soldiers leave businesses and livelihoods to serve for months at a time. Each contribution addresses a specific gap that would otherwise delay or cancel missions.
The relationship between military operations and civilian support has moved beyond symbolic. When donors provide a set of ceramic plates, those plates go into a vest that protects a soldier escorting a convoy carrying food to troops in Gaza. When missions proceed instead of getting cancelled, it traces back to specific people who decided to fund specific equipment.
Donors have become infrastructure. They fill the space between what the army can provide and what operations require. Their contributions determine whether trucks roll or sit idle, whether missions happen or get postponed, whether soldiers have the protection they need when they step into operational zones.
This is how reserve logistics units function during extended conflict: with one foot in military supply chains and one foot in civilian support networks. Both are necessary. Both are real. The missions that do happen, happen because donors made them possible.