May 2006
Egoz Battalion, IDF
http://www.intelligence.org.il/department/department.htm
An Israeli Merkava main battle tank.
Israeli modified F-16 flying over Masada.
Israel Defense Forces:
The IDF falls under the command of a single general staff.
The Chief of the General Staff (Ramatkal)
has the rank of (Lieutenant) General ( "Rav Aluf") and is the high commander of the IDF.
He reports directly to the Defense minister and indirectly to the Prime Minister of Israel and its government. Chiefs of Staff are formally appointed by the government, based on the Defense Minister's recommendation, for three years, but the government can vote to extend their service to four (and in rare occasions even five) years.
The current chief of staff is (Lieutenant) General (Rav-Aluf) Dan Halutz,
who replaced Moshe Ya'alon, on June 1st, 2005.
(Lt.) Gen. Dan Halutz Chief of the General Staff
Maj. Gen. Moshe Kaplinsky Deputy Chief of the General Staff
Maj. Gen. Benny Gantz GOC Army Headquarters
Maj. Gen. Avi Mizrahi Head of Technological and Logistics Directorate
Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin Director of Military Intelligence
Maj. Gen. Elazar Stern Head of Personnel Directorate
Maj. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot Head of Operations Directorate
Maj. Gen. Itzhak Harel Head of Plans and Policy Directorate
Maj. Gen. Elyezer Shkedy Commander of the Israeli Air Force
Maj. Gen. David Ben Ba'ashat Commander of the Israeli Navy
Maj. Gen. Yair Naveh GOC Central Command
Maj. Gen. Udi Adam GOC Northern Command
Maj. Gen. Yoav Gallant GOC Southern Command
Maj. Gen. Gershon Yitzhak GOC Home Front Command
Maj. Gen. Eyal Ben Reuven Commander of the Military Colleges and Senior Field Commander
Maj. Gen. Yousef Mishleb Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories
Maj. Gen. Yishai Beer President of the Military Court of Appeals
Maj. Gen. Udi Shani Head of C4I and Senior Field Commander
Maj. Gen. (Res.) Amos Yaron Director General of the Ministry of Defense
Maj. Gen. Gadi Shamni Military Secretary of the Prime Minister
Brig. Gen. Miri Regev IDF Spokesperson
Brig. Gen. Avichai Mendelblit Military Advocate General
Brig. Gen. Moshe Lipel Financial Advisor to the Chief of Staff
Maj. Gen. (Res.) Shmuel Keren Director of Development of Weapons Systems Infrastructure
Maj. Gen. (Res.) Yossi Beinhorn Defense Establishment Comptroller
Active units:
Several dozens Special forces and Counter-terrorism elite units (Sayeret)
About 5 additional mixed unit battalions (Haruv, Shimshon, Nachshon, Lavi, Duhifat).
Barak Armored Brigade (aka. 188th Brigade)
Ga'ash Brigade (Hativa Sheva in Hebrew, aka. 7th Brigade)
Ikvot Habarzel Brigade (aka. 401st Brigade)
consisting of three brigades.
consisting of a regular brigade and additional smaller units.
Engineering company in each infantry brigade.
Field Intelligence Corps, abbreviated as Modash
Youth and Nahal Center. A unit of the army that used to be composed of young people who would build new settlements in Israel and then spend their army service defending them. Today Nachal is a regular unit of the infantry in the Israeli Army.
Border Police (MAGAV)
(a combat unit of the police, deployed mostly along the borders and in the West Bank; includes also a few special forces).
Sar-El short time service program for oversea volunteers.
Marva short time tironut program (level 02) for oversea volunteers.
Small Arms
Tavor TAR-21 bullpup assault rifle
"Refaim" advance rifle grenade
Galil assault rifle
Uzi submachine gun
Micro Uzi
Para Micro Uzi
Mini Uzi
Uzi pistol
IMI Negev light machine gun
Jericho 941 "Baby Eagle" handgun
T.C.I. M89-SR semi-auto bullpup sniper rifle (based on a M-36 Sardius rifle)
SR-99 semi-auto sniper rifle
RCWS - remote control weapon station
OWS - overhead weapon station (also known as "Mag Refael")
Armoured Fighting Vehicles
Mk 1
Mk 2
Mk 3
Mk 3 Baz (improved armour and fire control system)
Mk 3 LIC (modified for low intensity warfare, i.e. urban warfare).
Mk 4
Nammer ARV - Merkava armoured recovery vehicle
Magah (upgraded M60 Patton) - Main battle tank
Puma - Combat engineering armoured vehicle
Achzarit - APC (armored personal carrier)
NagmaShot - an APC based on the Centurion tank
Nakpadon
Caterpillar D9 Bulldozer - an up-armoured military version
Machbet - self propelled anti aircraft system
Self-propelled artillery systems
All-terrain vehicles and other wheeled vehicles
Abir
Sufa
Desert Raider
Rockets and Missiles
Gil/Spike - ATGM (anti-tank guided missile)
Shifon - ATGM
Jericho missile - ballistic missile
Shavit - satellite launch missile, based on Jericho
Rafael Python 4 and Rafael Python 5 - advance air-to-air missiles
Popeye (AGM-142) - advance guided air-to-ground missile
Hetz (Arrow missile) - part of a ballistic missile defense system, able to shoot down ballistic missiles
Electronics and High-Tech
Oren Yarok (Green Pine) - radar system used by the Arrow system
Phalcon - intelligence gathering systems installed on large airplane
Amos - communications satellite (civilian, used by the IDF)
Katbam - unmanned naval vehicle
LITENING targeting pod - enhance fighter jets offensive capabilities
F-4 Phantom, F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jet electronic systems
Barak Zoher - advance tank firing system, installed on Merkava tanks
Dolphin class submarine electronic and warfare systems
Aircraft platforms
Nesher fighter jet (upgraded Mirage V)
Kfir fighter jet (upgraded and improved Mirage V)
Nammer fighter jet
Lavi fighter jet (original design, prototype flown but project cancelled due to cost)
Arava STOL medium transport aircraft
Mazlat (UAV) - unmanned small aerial vehicle
Naval platforms
Dabur/Dvora/Tsir'a/Yatush patrol craft
Sa'ar-class missile boat
Israel Defence Forces: the military. The IDF operates air, ground and naval forces in order to protect Israel against foreign armies and terrorists. The IDF elite units are called Sayeret. The most famous Sayeret units are Sayeret Matkal and Shayetet-13.
The Intelligence Branch (Aman).
Infantry brigades (Paratroopers Brigade, Golani Brigade, Givati Brigade, Nahal Brigade, Mech. Infantry)
Armored corps and Artillery corps,
The Israeli Navy
Israel Police: a civilian force. As most other police forces in the world, their duties include crime fighting, traffic control and maintaining public safety.
Border Police ("MAGAV"): the combat arm of the Israeli Police. Border Police troops are trained by the IDF in high infantry level but serve under the police. They are deployed in the West Bank and in the countryside. They are also deployed on the borders of Israel. YAMAM is the elite civilian counter terrorism unit of Israel.
MASHAZ (Civilian Guard): a volunteer organization of citizens which assists in daily police work. Members are trained to provide the initial response to a security situation until the police arrive. MASHAZ volunteers are armed with M4 Carbine and personal handguns. The MASHAZ also have special units, but their members require additional training and a higher level of commitment.
SHABAS - Prison service: the SHABAS is responsible for guarding Israeli prisons and making sure that the prisoners do not escape. The SHABAS elite unit is called "Metzada" and is specialized for hostage situations inside prisons.
Shin Bet (Israel Internal Security Service): Shin-Bet's duties are to protect ministers and high public officials (such as the president or the head of police), to prevent violent insurrection, to gather intelligence, and to pinpoint terrorist cells and prevent them from causing damage. Shin-Bet activities are classified.
Mossad. Ha-Mossad le-Modiin ule-Tafkidim Meyuhadim "The Institute for Intelligence and for Special Tasks"): the Mossad is an Israeli intelligence agency. It is responsible for intelligence collection, covert action (including paramilitary activities and assassinations) and counter-terrorism. Its focus is on Arab nations and organizations throughout the world.
LOTAR Eilat: a special reserves unit for counter-terrorism which is based in Eilat.
KABATs (Security Officers): public officials trained in combat and able to handle terrorist threats. The KABATs, besides supplying an initial response to threats, are experts in security issues. When they are deployed in a small town or village, they are responsible for that town or village's defense.
Magen David Adom: Israeli first aid organization responsible for emergency medical, disaster, ambulance and blood bank services. The name means "Red Star of David."
Sherutei Kaba'ut veHazala (Fire department): Israeli firefighters. They are responsible for extinguishing fires and extracting people trapped in structures (ranging from stuck elevators to collapsed buildings).
Pikud HaOref Rescue Team: a military rescue team which handles large-scale civilian disasters such as earthquakes, collapsed buildings and missile attacks on cities.
ZAKA - Hessed Shel Emet ("True Grace"): a volunteer organization mostly comprised of Haredi Jews who assume the duty of collecting human remains following a disaster, to provide those remains a proper Jewish burial. ZAKA has gained much positive publicity for its efforts in handling remains of victims of suicide bombings. Their founder, Yehuda Meshi Zahav, was honored by being asked to light a beacon during the celebration of Israel's Independence Day. In addition to recovering body parts, ZAKA also provides first aid services and assists in searching for missing people.
Local Rescue teams: A rescue team on each of the Galil, the Golan Heights and the Negev rescues lost travelers and tourists.
Mishmar haKnesset (The Knesset Guard): An organization that secure the israeli parliament, but also has a ceremonial role. The Serjeant-at-Arms ("katzin ha-Knesset") is the commander of the Knesset Guard.
Egoz Battalion:
The
Egoz Battalion (Hebrew: Gdud Egoz) is an Israel Defense Forces infantry unit that specializes in guerilla and anti-guerilla warfare.The
Egoz Battalion is part of the Golani Brigade.Egoz
is a Hebrew word meaning 'nut', although in the case of the battalion, it is also an abbreviation for Anti Guerilla and Micro-Warfare (Anti Gerila VeLohama Zeira).Before the year 2000,
Egoz operated mainly in Israel's Northern Command,combatting threats from the Hezbollah.
Following Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon,
its operations were moved to the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
In 2003 and 2004,
Egoz prevented more terrorist acts than any other IDF unit.The unit still does some reconnaissance in southwern Lebanon.
The
Egoz Battalion was founded in 1956 as a special forces unit (sayeret), but was disbanded and re-organized in 1964 due to a friendly fire incident. It was then disbanded again following the Yom Kippur War, and re-formed in 1995 as an anti-guerilla unit. Most of the initial fighters came from the Shimshon Unit. Its commander was from the Navy Commandoes and so much of the discipline, tactics and professionalism come from the Navy Commandos, not from Golani.The training of an
Egoz units begins with basic training, advanced exercises, and unit marches, after which each soldier is interviewed with Israeli intelligence to determine if he should be screened out from the second phase of training. The second phase consists of learning camouflage warfare, various kinds of assaults, land navigation in pairs, and completing the squad leaders course, jeep driving course, parachute course, concealment course and the alpine course if there is snow in the Hermon area.When operating in Lebanon, the unit uses unmarked bullets, as well as the Russian-made RPD and PK light machine guns. Soldiers using the M16 standard issue weapon have the Litton Akila night vision system mounted on it.
IDF & Egoz Battalion
May 16, 2006