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Aman is the Hebrew abbreviation for the Israel Defence Forces' (IDF)

Directorate of Military Intelligence, Israel's central, overarching military inteligence.

Aman was created in 1950, when the 'Intelligence Department' was spun off from the IDF's General Staff (then, Agam).

Aman is an independent service, on a par with the Infantry Corps, Navy Corps, and the Air Force Corps, with a staff of 7,000 personnel (estimate as of 1996).

It is currently headed by Major General Aharon Zeevi-Farkash.

On 10 June 2005, the IDF's chief, Lieutenant General Dan Halutz, in a move viewed as surprising, announced that Major General Aharon Zeevi-Farkash will be replaced by Major General Amos Yidlin.

Yidlin, recently nominated to replace Zeevi-Farkash

1959-1962 — Major General Chaim Herzog

2002-2005 — Major General Aharon Zeevi-Farkash (outgoing)

2005-Present – Major General Amos Yidlin (recent nomination)

Despite being a top-secret and relatively small army unit, former Sayeret Matkal veterans have a disproportionate influence on the army and public service. This may partly be due to the fact that rigorous screening and training (second only to that of the Israeli Air Force pilot academy) ensures that only the most capable and motivated Israeli youths are accepted by the unit as fighters.

Note: Until recently the Israeli army had an official policy of denying existence of this unit. Operations were generally attributed to "elite paratroopers". Sayeret Matkal operations are still kept secret to this day. However, due to the unit's successes in daring operations, it soon became a very publicly-known secret in Israeli society.

Combat brigades in the IDF usually have a company with improved weaponry, also known as plugat siyur (Hebrew pl. plugot siyur, abbr: palsar ), that is used to reinforce the brigade's regular forces.

Other sayarot are larger units, operating under corps and commands. Although the plugot siyur are mostly oriented at battlefield support (which is their raison d'être), many have participated in special operations during recent years.

All infantry units as well as the 7th Armoured Brigade have plugot siyur.

Each of the four Infantry Brigades (Golani, Givati, Nahal and Paratroopers) has its own Special Forces reconnaissance battalion (Yehidat Siyur, abbr: Yahsar). This battalion is made up of three specialized company-size units: Demolitions (Plugat Heil Handasa, abbr: Palhan), Recon (Palsar, mentioned above) and Anti-Tank (Plugat Neged Tankim, abbr: Palnat). While in the past there were differences between the three units, the IDF is now consolidating the three specialized units into one larger battalion-size unit with many different capabilities. This is part of the Yatah Project or, as it is called in English, the Low-Intensity Combat Unit project. This project aims at changing the Reconnaissance battalions into specialized urban counter terror units, that are specifically trained and equipt to operate in current combat situations.

In addition to the brigade sayeret units, IDF combat divisions have their own battalion-size recon units (Gdud Siyur, abbr: Gadsar).

There are also several battalion-size special forces units which report directly to regional, functional (navy/air-force) and the general commands.

The best known of these are Sayeret Matkal and Shayetet 13.

Other sayarot that became public over the years:

The S-13 is based upon the Naval Brigade of the Jewish pre-military Haganah. Only in the 1970's it was professionalized as a naval SF unit and elite CT force. During the following decades the S-13 based its reputation as the second best elite SF in the IDF.

The S-13 took part in Operation Spring of Youth of 1973 in which Israeli special forces raided Beirut secretly overnight and killed some of the members of Black September, which had carried out the Munich Massacre of Israeli athletes in the Munich 1972 Summer Olympics.

Beside its great successes, the S-13 has also known great tragedies.

On September 8, 1997 the unit suffered a serious blow during a raid in Lebanon, when it was caught in a Hezbollah ambush and 11 of its soldiers were killed, including the unit commander.

In recent years, it was discovered that S-13 veterans had high occurrence of cancer, probably due to training in the polluted Kishon River & Haifa Bay. A commission for investigating the matter didn't find statistical evidences that the diving in the Kishon caused the cancer. However, Minister of Defence, Shaul Mofaz, decided to compensate the divers' families in spite of the commission findings.

S-13 is considered one of the best elite SF unit in the Israeli Defence Force and has a strong positive reputation with the Israeli public.

The training course of S-13 lasts one year and eight months (a total of 20 months). During training, the trainees acquire many skills, such as: sniping, navigation, unarmed combat, diving, sailing, parachuting, helicopter gliding and more.

During the al-Aqsa Intifada, the S-13 soldiers decided not to limit themselves to naval operations and took part in ground counter terror operations deep within the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The S-13 has performed hundreds of operations, including the arrest and/or killing of many militants of the Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, considered worldwide as terrorists due to their involvement in suicide bombings.

S-13 still performs naval operations. It earned high acclaim due to the capture of three Palestinian ships which smuggled illegal weapons: Karin A, Santorini and Abu-Yusuf. The takeover of Karin A in particular was considered a highly difficult operation and it was conducted flawlessly.

In 2002 and in 2003, the S-13 won the Chief-of-Staff award for successful counter terror operations.

Following the death of S-13's Captain Moran Vardi on July 6, 2004, the IDF issued the following statement:

The name "Yahalom" (Diamond in Hebrew) is an abbreviation of "Special Operations Engineering Unit".

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:

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 Shayetet-13, by providing them demolitions, explosive and sabotage skills.

The exact weapons of the unit aren't detailed but it was recently report they acquired new means to handle smuggling tunnels, such as remote-controlled robot which can scan tunnels, preventing the need for human operator to enter the tunnel and risk its life.

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.

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 provided accurate demolition skills to destroy Palestinian terror facilities such as bomb-labs and terrorists' house. They also reportedly blew up buildings in the Mukataa and bridges near Beit Hanoun (in order to prevent transportation of Qassam rockets via trucks and vans).

The YAMAM, is the acronym for Special Police Unit  in Hebrew, Israel's elite civilian counter-terrorism unit.

YAMAM stands for Special Police Unit.

In Israel it is also called "The Unit for Counter-Terror."

The YAMAM answers to the MAGAV central command and belongs to the civilian Israeli police forces rather than the military.

Its operators and officers are professional policemen on payroll, usually with combat experience from their military service within the IDF.

The YAMAM is self-dependent, training its own operators in all fields, such as sniping, recon, dog operating, bomb disposal, etc.

As a result, the YAMAM has a very rapid deployment time and high coordination between various squads (sniping squad, entry team, engagement force, etc.).

The YAMAM's primary duties are:

Most of the YAMAM's activity is classified, and published YAMAM operations are often credited to other units. Nevertheless, the YAMAM enjoys a high reputation among SF professionals and the Israeli public.

The YAMAM has carried out many counter-terror operations. Some of the missions known to the public prior to the al-Aqsa Intifada are listed below:

The YAMAM has carried out many counter-terror operations during the Al-Aqsa Intifada within the last few years. The vast majority of them are classified. Some of the most notable are listed below:

The Israel Border Police (Hebrew: Mishmar HaGvul) is the combat branch of the Israeli Police.

It is also commonly known by its Hebrew abbreviation Magav, meaning: border guard.

The Border Police was founded as the Frontier Corps, a gendarmerie under the IDF in 1949 with the task of providing security in rural areas and along the borders. In the course of the following years, it was gradually transferred to the command of the Police and became the Border Police. During these years, it secured new settlements and countered infiltration of Palestinians, especially from Egypt and Jordan.

During the 1956 Suez War, the Border Police was involved in the Kafr Qasim massacre. On the second day of the war, a curfew was imposed on the Israeli Arab village. Villagers who had worked in the village fields and had not been informed about the curfew were shot as they returned to the village, resulting in 49 dead. The massacre raised a strong protest in the Israeli public and resulted in a landmark Supreme Court ruling on the obligation of soldiers to disobey manifestly illegal orders.

During the 1967 Six-Day War, the Border Police took part in the fighting alongside the IDF. Following the war, it was deployed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and charged with maintaining law and order as part of the military administration. Since then, a significant portion of the Border Police's activity has been in these territories, especially during the years of the Intifada.

In 1974, the counter-terror unit YAMAM is established.

In October Riots the Border Police used as the main branch of the treatment in the events. During al-Aqsa Intifada the Border Police took a large part in the security activity.

In 2005 the Border Police participated in the implementation of the disengagement plan.