Sayeret Matkal

Sayeret Matkal (aka General Staff Reconnaissance Unit 269; “The Unit”), the most elite commando unit of the Israel Defense Force (IDF), was founded in 1957 by Avraham Arnan, who petitioned the IDF General Staff for a combat unit in enemy territory to conduct top secret intelligence gathering missions, The unit has carried out many counterterrorist operations since its founding.

Sayeret Matkal has had tremendous influence on the IDF and is known for several spectacular hostage rescues. In 1972 the unit freed hostages on a Sabena airliner at the Tel Aviv Airport. Commandos disguised as maintenance personnel took control of the airliner from members of Abu Nidal's Black September Organization during “Operation Isotope.”

In a 1976 mission the 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 the Ugandan leader Idi Amin's personal car, and the ruse fooled the 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 Ma'alot, and dozens of teachers and students were taken hostage. [Page 531]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 counterterror attacks and assassinations. In 1973, the Sayeret Matkal commando Ehud Barak (who would serve 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 while still in his late teens, rose to the leadership of Sayeret Matkal. Benjamin Netanyahu, who also later served as prime minister of Israel, served under Barak in Sayeret Matkal.

The unit is credited with the 1988 assassination of PLO 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's spiritual leader Sheikh 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 the assassination of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein turned deadly. In that instance, a guided missile was accidentally fired on the base.

Sayeret Matkal was at the center of a different kind of controversy in 2003, when 13 of its members presented the prime minister with a resignation letter, saying that they refused to continue assisting “the reign of oppression in the territories.” The letter was widely condemned by the Israeli military, and the 13 were expelled from the unit.

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