Civilian effort to equip Israeli soldiers for war with Hezbollah ratchets up alongside hostilities

(JTA) - As tensions between Israel and Hezbollah have shot up to new highs, Israeli soldiers anticipating being deployed to the north are increasingly turning for help to the civilian donation efforts that have kept them stocked in Gaza.

Adi Vaxman, who heads the U.S.-based donation effort called Operation Israel, fields requests from individual soldiers and says demand has spiked in tandem with security developments involving Hezbollah.

"With the situation up north, the demand has tripled in the last few days," Vaxman told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency last week. She said the total requests b...