The
Egoz Reconnaissance Unit is an
Israel Defense ForcesThe Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are Israel's military forces, comprising the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...
elite unit that specializes in guerrilla and anti-guerrilla warfare. The Egoz Battalion is part of the
Northern CommandThe Israeli Northern Command is the Israel Defense Forces regional command responsible for the northern front with Syria and Lebanon.-History:...
's
Golani BrigadeThe Golani Brigade is an Israeli infantry brigade which was formed on February 22, 1948 when the Levanoni Brigade in the Galilee split into the 1st Golani Brigade and the 2nd Carmeli Brigade...
.
Egoz is a Hebrew word meaning 'nut' (meaning 'seed', not 'crazy'), although in the case of the unit, it is also an abbreviation for Anti Guerilla and Micro-Warfare (
Anti Gerila VeLohama Zeira). The Hebrew letter "vav" can be pronounced several ways, including both "v" and long "o", hence the apparent discrepancy between
VeLohama and the "o" in Egoz.
Before the year 2000, Egoz operated mainly in Israel's
Northern CommandThe Israeli Northern Command is the Israel Defense Forces regional command responsible for the northern front with Syria and Lebanon.-History:...
, combating threats from the
HezbollahHezbollah is a Shi'a Islamist political and paramilitary organisation based in Lebanon. Hezbollah is now also a major provider of social services, which operate schools, hospitals, and agricultural services for thousands of Lebanese Shiites, and plays a significant force in Lebanese politics...
.
The
Egoz Reconnaissance Unit is an
Israel Defense ForcesThe Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are Israel's military forces, comprising the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...
elite unit that specializes in guerrilla and anti-guerrilla warfare. The Egoz Battalion is part of the
Northern CommandThe Israeli Northern Command is the Israel Defense Forces regional command responsible for the northern front with Syria and Lebanon.-History:...
's
Golani BrigadeThe Golani Brigade is an Israeli infantry brigade which was formed on February 22, 1948 when the Levanoni Brigade in the Galilee split into the 1st Golani Brigade and the 2nd Carmeli Brigade...
.
Egoz is a Hebrew word meaning 'nut' (meaning 'seed', not 'crazy'), although in the case of the unit, it is also an abbreviation for Anti Guerilla and Micro-Warfare (
Anti Gerila VeLohama Zeira). The Hebrew letter "vav" can be pronounced several ways, including both "v" and long "o", hence the apparent discrepancy between
VeLohama and the "o" in Egoz.
Before the year 2000, Egoz operated mainly in Israel's
Northern CommandThe Israeli Northern Command is the Israel Defense Forces regional command responsible for the northern front with Syria and Lebanon.-History:...
, combating threats from the
HezbollahHezbollah is a Shi'a Islamist political and paramilitary organisation based in Lebanon. Hezbollah is now also a major provider of social services, which operate schools, hospitals, and agricultural services for thousands of Lebanese Shiites, and plays a significant force in Lebanese politics...
. Following Israel's withdrawal from
Southern LebanonSouthern Lebanon is the geographical area of Lebanon comprising the South Governorate and the Nabatiye Governorate. These two entities were divided from the same province in the early 1990s...
, its operations were moved to the
West BankThe West Bank is a landlocked territory and is the eastern part of the Palestinian territories; on the west bank of the River Jordan in the Middle East. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel, which maintains the security of this area. To the east,...
and
Gaza StripThe Gaza Strip lies on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Egypt on the south-west and Israel on the south, east and north. It is about long, and between 6 and 12 kilometers wide, with a total area of . The area is recognized internationally as part of the Palestinian territories...
. In 2003 and 2004, Egoz prevented more terrorist acts than any other IDF unit. The unit still does some reconnaissance in southern Lebanon.
The Egoz Unit was founded in 1956 as a
special forcesSpecial forces and special operations forces are generic terms for elite highly-trained military teams/units that conduct specialized operations such as reconnaissance, unconventional warfare, direct action and counter-terrorism actions.In the United States, the term special operations forces is...
unit (
sayeretSayeret , literally means "reconnaissance unit" in the Israel Defense Forces . In practice, these units specialize in commando and other special forces roles, in addition to reconnaissance...
), but was disbanded and re-organized in 1964 due to a friendly fire incident. After the
Six-Day WarThe Six-Day War of June 5-10, 1967 was a war between the Israel army and the armies of the neighboring states of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. The Arab states of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria also contributed troops and arms. At the war's end, Israel had gained control of the...
, it became a
battalionA battalion is a military unit of around 1000-1500 soldiers usually consisting of between two and seven companies and typically commanded by a Lieutenant Colonel...
. It was disbanded again following the
Yom Kippur WarThe Yom Kippur War, Ramadan War or October War , also known as the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and the Fourth Arab-Israeli War, was fought from October 6 to October 26, 1973, between Israel and a coalition of...
due to manpower shortages in other units, and re-formed in 1995 as an anti-guerrilla unit (company). Most of the initial fighters came from the Shimshon Unit. Its commander was from the Navy Commandos and so much of the discipline, tactics and professionalism come from the Navy Commandos, not from Golani.
The training of an Egoz unit begins with
basic trainingTironut is the Hebrew name for the recruit training of the Israel Defense Forces . In the IDF, recruit training comes in many difficulty levels, each corps or major unit having their own training program. After the tironut, a recruit is certified as a rifleman of a level that depends on the...
, advanced exercises, and unit marches, after which each soldier is interviewed by 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, completing the squad leaders course, jeep driving course, counter-terrorism course, parachute course, reconnaissance 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
PKThe PK is a 7.62 mm general purpose machine gun designed in the Soviet Union and currently in production in Russia. The PK machine gun was introduced in the 1960s and replaced the SGM and RPD machine guns in Soviet service. The PK machine gun can be used as a light anti-aircraft weapon when it is...
light machine guns. Soldiers using the M16 standard issue weapon have the Litton Akila night vision system mounted on it.
2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict
In the
2006 Israel-Lebanon conflictThe 2006 Lebanon War, also called the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War and known in Lebanon as the July War and in Israel as the Second Lebanon War , was a 34-day military conflict in Lebanon and northern Israel. The principal parties were Hezbollah paramilitary forces and the Israeli military...
, five members of the Egoz Unit were killed and six wounded in
Maroun al-RasMaroun al-Ras is a Lebanese village nestled in Jabal Amel in the district of Bint Jbeil in the Nabatiye Governorate in southern Lebanon. It is located around 120 km south east of Beirut, roughly one km from the Israeli border...
. According to the IDF, 20 members of the Hizbullah were killed.
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