IDF recruited thousands of cars—you won't know if you buy one

A cloud of dust rises beyond the hill, nothing unusual in the gathering areas around Gaza. The ground has long since turned to powder, known in IDF slang as "powder." It has been ground thousands of times by tank tracks, APCs, bulldozers, dozens of D-9 vehicles moving in and out of the Strip—and that’s before the psychological multiplication of private cars, pickup trucks, cargo vehicles, and even ancient REO trucks, which continue running, making one believe in the supernatural strength of inanimate objects.

But emerging from this cloud of dust isn’t a Hummer, or a Z-MAG, nor a Namer (an Israeli APC) — it’s a Toyota Corolla station wagon, sagging on its four suspensions, grazing the stones and emitting a chilling scraping sound every few seconds as it kisses the ground. It’s hard to see, but inside are five reservists, and the trunk is packed to the ceiling with their personal and military gear. While the thought, "Who on earth would do that to their own car?" crosses my mind, I notice the blue and red stickers—"Ah, a YARAM vehicle..."

This event involving the Corolla wasn't a one-time occurrence. There was also that Renault Grand Coupe dragging its rear bumper and impressively continuing to move even as it scooped up massive amounts of sand. An Isuzu D-Max pickup truck, whose front bumper had been left abandoned after failed attempts to keep it attached, also joined the ranks.

Meet the "Recruited Vehicle Unit," or YARAM (Yechidat Rechev Meguyas), the unit that can recruit nearly any vehicle in Israel. In fact, the word "nearly" is unnecessary—they can recruit any vehicle in Israel. The 1987 Equipment Registration and Recruitment for the IDF Law, section 7, allows the IDF to recruit "registered" vehicles in times of emergency, meaning vehicles whose owners know that in an emergency, the army may summon their vehicle for use. But the law also includes section 8, which allows the recruitment of vehicles even if they weren't pre-registered as such—essentially a "motorized section 8." Another distinction between the two sections is the duration of recruitment: Under normal circumstances, the time frame is two weeks, but in cases falling under Emergency Order, the duration is unlimited.

The legal authority under which this recruitment body, called "The National Unit for Recruitment and Registration of Means," operates is provided by the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, which convenes every two weeks to approve the recruitment. At these meetings, army representatives present their list of needs, and the committee members approve, limit, or reject the requests.

In the current war, the equipment demands far exceeded the last time the unit was activated on such a scale, during the Yom Kippur War. This time, the needs included light aircraft, fire-fighting trailers, horse carriages, and even secure courier vehicles. Nevertheless, the army must present very specific requirements for the type of vehicle, such as in the case of refrigerated trucks intended for food transport, specifying the vehicle type, size, cooling level required, and more. One of the challenging situations the unit faced with the outbreak of the war was the emergency recruitment of dozens of funeral vehicles (about 80), which were made available to the army within 14 hours of the start of fighting.

Diving into the world of YARAM vehicles reveals complexity that's hard to grasp at first glance. For example, the army initially prefers to rent vehicles, which solves several problems: The first is the immediate availability of the cars, the second is sparing civilians from having to give up their vehicles, and the third is supporting car rental companies whose activity has significantly slowed due to the war. However, it turns out that, legally, a rented vehicle is not allowed to cross borders, so these couldn't be used when the army required cross-border movement. Additionally, the complex needs of the war meant that even the rental fleet didn’t fully match the actual demands, forcing the army to extend the recruitment to private vehicles, even though it had already emptied rental lots of thousands of cars.

Despite the ability to recruit any necessary vehicle or equipment, conversations with people in the "National Unit" reveal there is flexibility and a willingness to ease the burden on civilians who request not to have their vehicles conscripted. This is done through a special release committee, to which one can submit a request to cancel the conscription order, of course with suitable explanations. However, the army says that the response from the public has been more than impressive, with many residents of the confrontation lines willingly contributing to the war effort. In these cases, there is also an economic incentive, as the alternative for many is having their vehicle sit idle due to factory and business closures in the north.

So how does the process work in practice? Upon receiving the "order," the civilian arrives at the recruitment center, though in some cases, the vehicle is recruited in advance coordination, even without the owner's presence. The vehicle then undergoes a general inspection, documentation, and registration, and in some cases, is converted from "civilian" to military use by adding communication equipment or other components.

At the same time, tracking devices and GPS systems are removed from the vehicles if installed, to prevent enemy intelligence on troop movements. According to the IDF, these actions are carried out with the owner's knowledge, and contact is maintained with the owner throughout the vehicle's service.

The army clarifies that once the vehicle is recruited, it is subject to all the rules and regulations that apply to a military vehicle, from travel briefings to signing work cards and processing military police tickets. Vehicle maintenance is conducted under strict conditions, using authorized garages and original parts, and when performed by the owner after the vehicle is released (in certain cases), full reimbursement is provided within 14 days. Major damage or significant wear and tear is compensated after assessment by an appraiser.

The rates paid by the army for daily use of the vehicles vary and are updated by the Ministry of Defense periodically, most recently at the beginning of September. The complete list includes no less than 284 different types of vehicles.

From our investigation, we found that for refrigerated food trucks, for instance, the owner of a pickup receives NIS 621 per day, while a truck over 10 tons receives NIS 935 per day. For engineering vehicles, highly needed for military operations, prices range between NIS 1,612 and NIS 4,396 per day for heavy machinery. As for "regular" vehicles, prices range from NIS 88 for a small car like a mini or supermini, NIS 107 for a family car, NIS 218 for a seven-seater, NIS 304 for an off-road vehicle, and so on. A two-wheeled vehicle up to 250cc gets a higher rate— NIS 318 per day. Small pickups like the Citroën Berlingo are paid NIS 399, and full-sized pickups range between NIS 448 and NIS 477 for four-wheel drive models. In the "specials" category, you can find various and strange vehicles, including road sweepers (NIS 1,064), horse carriages (NIS 488), aircraft tugs (NIS 1,005), and even food trucks (NIS 1,005 without equipment and 1,013 with), and secure courier vehicles (NIS 301).

However, despite the impression that the army is doing everything possible to create an orderly and fair recruitment, operation, maintenance, and compensation mechanism, it's hard to ignore the significant gaps between the set procedures and what happens on the ground. The Corolla station wagon from the beginning of the article is not an isolated case. Particularly with off-road vehicles, especially modern ones that require understanding how to properly operate in different conditions (when and how to engage four-wheel drive and various controls), I personally encountered more than once a gap in understanding proper vehicle operation. This is likely a gap that’s simply impossible to bridge with such a massive recruitment effort and a wide variety of end-users.

Another unresolved issue is the documentation of vehicle usage. We're all familiar with the issue of ownership history affecting the value of second-hand cars. Different ownership types, such as private, rental, police, kibbutz, or leasing, receive various depreciation percentages. However, in the case of YARAM vehicles, a car used in ways its engineers never imagined, for extended periods, under harsh conditions far more intense than leasing or even rental service, returns to the private market with "mechanical PTSD," without any documentation or note that it served as a military vehicle for significant periods under challenging conditions.

The Defense Ministry has no interface with the Transport Ministry to update the vehicle's military history, and there is no such notation in the vehicle registration records handled by the Transport ministry.