Sayeret Matkal : Israel Operation
Israel’s most elite special operations force, Sayeret Matkal, is being prepped for extremely dangerous hostage-rescue missions in the Gaza Strip.
- Sayeret Matkal, also called General Staff Reconnaissance Unit 269, is an elite commando unit of the Israeli Defense Force (IDF).
- The unit was established in 1957 at the initiative of its first commander, Avraham Arnan.
- It is modelled on the UK’s Special Air Service, or SAS, a Special Forces unit of the British army, taking the unit’s motto “Who Dares Wins”.
- Sayeret Matkal is a field intelligence-gathering unit that conducts deep reconnaissance behind enemy lines and is also tasked with counter-terrorism and hostage rescue beyond Israel’s borders.
- It is directly subordinate to the Special Operations Branch of the IDF’s Directorate of Military Intelligence.
Israel only acknowledged its existence in the 1980s. - They have been known to work in conjunction with other elite Israeli units such as Sayeret Tzanhanim, Flotilla 13, and Sayeret Golani.
