Sayeret Yahalom
Yahalom (יהל"ם - יחידה הנדסית למשימות מיוחדות) is a special elite combat engineering unit of the Israeli Engineering Corps of the Israel Defense Forces. The name "Yahalom" (Diamond in Hebrew) is an abbreviation of "Engineering Unit for Special Operations". It has high reputation as one of the more capable elite unit of the IDF Special Forces.
Sayeret Yahalom specializes in special engineering mission which include:
- Commando and Counter-Terrorism missions.
- Accurate demolitions and planting of pinpoint explosives.
- Defusing bombs, landmines and unexploded ordnance (EOD).
- Maritime sabotage and obstacles breaching.
- Searching and destroying smuggling tunnels.
- Developing advanced methods and tools for demolitions and EOD.
- Teaching and training engineering corps soldiers and other Special Units in demolitions and EOD.
Organization and Activities
General Activities
Sayeret Yahalom (SY) is one of the most classified units in the IDF and almost none of its special activities are exposed to the public. Usually, when its activities are published, they are just credited to a "combat engineering force" (a term which used interchangeably for regular Engineering sappers, IDF Caterpillar D9 operators and infantry engineering companies).
Foreign sources (such as Janes Defence Weekly) claim that Sayeret Yahalom are
working closely with Sayeret Matkal and
Sub Units
- YAEL ("Ibex") - special demolition unit, long range sabotages missions, counter terror, maritime engineering.
- YACHSAP ("EOD Unit") - removing landmines, missile's warheads, handling NBC threats, bomb disposal.
- SAMOOR ("Weasel") - a unit whose expertise is finding and destroying smuggling tunnels and hidden weapon caches.
Weapons and means
The exact weapons of the unit aren't detailed but it was recently reported that they acquired new means to handle smuggling tunnels, such as remote-controlled robot which can scan tunnels, removing the need for human operators to enter the tunnel and risk their lives.
EOD robots for handling IEDs, bombs and explosive charges and advance EOD car are standard equipment for all engineering units handling explosives and also used by Magav sappers.
Other means of Sayeret Yahalom include the up-armored IDF Caterpillar D9 bulldozer (which was found extremely useful for special operation and CT duties), an armored Excavator with drills and IDF Puma CEV.
Activities during the Al-Aqsa Intifada
Recently, Sayeret Yahalom was enlarged when the Southern Command Gazan tunnel experts team was
merged with the unit, in a platoon called SAMOOR.
The "YACHSAP" team (the equivalent of EOD) is constantly defusing large IEDs set by Hizbullah in the Israeli-Lebanese border and bombs planted by Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. They are often assisted by armored bulldozers for that mission.
The YAEL team has destroyed Palestinian homes and civilian infrastructure that was being used as weapons caches, cover for tunnels used to smuggle weapons, and firing positions.
Joining the unit and Trainings
In order to be accepted into the unit one must enlist to the Israeli Engineering Corps and go through basic training ("Tironut"), in which the best trainees are tracked by the commanders and sent to "Gibush" (a 5-days test of physical and mental condition in intensive field trials) from whom the very best are selected to join the unit and received advance training. The extra training takes another year (which bring to a total of 1.5 years of training) and therefore joiners must commit themselves for two more years of service (in addition to the mandatory 3 years service in the IDF).
The long and intense training period include both Engineering and EOD training and both advance combat training and full Counter-terror training.
See also
External links
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