Sayeret Matkal

aka “The Unit,” General Staff Reconnaissance Unit 269

The Israel Defense Force's most elite commando unit, Sayeret Matkal has carried out many counter-terrorist operations.

[Page 324]Founded in 1957, Sayeret Matkal is known for several spectacular hostage rescues. In 1972, Sayeret Matkal freed hostages on a Sabena airliner at Tel Aviv Airport. Commandos disguised as maintenance personnel took control of the airliner from members of Black September during Operation Isotope.

In a 1976 mission, Sayeret Matkal worked with other Israeli Defense Force units to free hostages from an Air France plane that had been hijacked by Palestinian terrorists and flown to Entebbe, Uganda. The unit used a black Mercedes that was a perfect copy of Ugandan leader Idi Amin's personal car to fool local troops. Rescue force leader Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu, brother of former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was killed as he brought the hostages to safety.

On May 15, 1974, a Sayeret Matkal hostage rescue mission at an Israeli school went horribly wrong. Members of Nayef Hawatmeh's Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine had taken over the school in the northern town of Maalot, and held dozens of teachers and students hostage. When Sayeret Matkal stormed the school, Democratic Front members began firing at the hostages. At least 20 people, many of them children, were killed. Some were killed or wounded in the exchange of fire between Sayeret Matkal and the Democratic Front.

The unit has also engaged in many counter terror attacks and assassinations. In 1973, Sayeret Matkal commando Ehud Barak (who served as Israel's prime minister from 1999 to 2001) led a raid into Lebanon dressed as a woman. The unit assassinated three Palestinian leaders during the mission, called Operation Spring of Youth. Barak, who joined the unit at age 18, rose to the leadership of Sayeret Matkal. Benjamin Netanyahu, also later a prime minister of Israel, served under Barak in Sayeret Matkal.

The unit is credited with the 1988 assassination of Palestine Liberation Organization second-in-command Khalil Wazir, known as Abu Jihad. He was gunned down inside his Tunis home. However, Abu Jihad's assassination has also been attributed to the Mossad, Israel's secret service.

In July 1989, Sayeret Matkal reportedly kidnapped Hezbollah spiritual leader Sheik Abdul Karim Obeid from his southern Lebanon home. According to press reports, five Sayeret Matkal members were killed in 1992 at the Tse'elim base when a rehearsal of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's assassination turned deadly—a guided missile was accidentally fired on the base.