Reserve soldiers who were mobilized by Order 8 (reservist call-up) and after a shortened mobilization process arrived at the Emergency Storage Unit to receive tanks, found that the maintenance process of Merkava Mk.3 tanks was harmed over the years.
When the commanders and reservists were told that they were going to join the war, they began to speed up the preparation process of the tanks, but what they found was more than could be taken care of with a quick fix.
Reservists 'shocked' by the state of the tanks
A military official told Walla that the reservists, who participated in battles in the Gaza Strip and killed terrorists, were "shocked by the state" of the maintenance.
"They are ashamed. I don't want to talk about the level of maintenance of the tracked treads, springs, and brackets, tracked treads that are falling apart, but it is enough to understand the level of maintenance of the engines to understand that something bad happened here over time. What kind of message is this for reservists?"
Another military official criticized: "There are tanks here that are having their engines replaced for the second time. This doesn't look serious. No one wants to get stuck with the tank. I won't go into the numbers, but the level of maintenance of the tanks is very far from the level of motivation of the reservists who do everything to improve the situation. Someone here should be ashamed and the time will come to give explanations. We received tanks that pose a danger to lives."
The IDF spokesman would not comment on the report.