The
Yamam , is the acronym for
Special Police Unit (יחידת משטרה מיוחדת,
Yeḥidat Mishtara Meyuḥedet),
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
's elite civilian
counter-terrorismCounter-terrorism is the practices, tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, militaries, police departments and corporations adopt in response to terrorist threats and/or acts, both real and imputed....
unit. The Yamam is capable of both hostage-rescue operations and offensive take-over raids against targets in civilian areas. Besides military duties, it also performs
SWATA SWAT team is an elite tactical unit in American and some international law enforcement departments. They are trained to perform high-risk operations that fall outside of the abilities of regular officers...
duties and
undercoverBeing undercover is disguising one's own identity or using an assumed identity for the purposes of gaining the trust of an individual or organization to learn secret information or to gain the trust of targeted individuals in order to gain information or evidence...
police work.
Name and organization
Yamam stands for Special Police Unit. In Israel it is also called "The Unit for Counter-Terror Warfare" (היחידה ללוחמה בטרור). The Yamam answers to the
Ministry of DefenseThe Ministry of Defense of the government of Israel, is the governmental department responsible for defending the State of Israel from internal and external military threats...
central command and belongs to the civilian
Israel PoliceThe Israel Police is a civilian force in the State of Israel. As with most other police forces in the world, its duties include crime fighting, traffic control and maintaining public safety...
forces on paper, rather than the military, but is actually independent in many ways. Its operators and officers are professional policemen on payroll, always with infantry experience from their military service within the
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...
. Yamam recruits its members exclusively from Israeli units.
Yamam is an integral part of the Israeli Border Guard (Magav) for the purpose of pay checks and budget only. The name being the acronym for the unit's Hebrew name: Yechida Mishtartit Meyuchedet (=Special Police Unit.) The unit is primarily responsible for civilian hostage rescue within Israel's borders, but from about the mid-1990s it has been used for tasks such as arresting police suspects who have barricaded themselves in and required specialized extraction methods, and in counter-terror operations within the Arab West Bank and Gaza. The Yamam are schooled in basic Arabic and dress to assimilate within the Arab population to avoid detection similar to Duvdevan, in order to carry out raids to arrest those suspected of conducting terrorist activities within the Israeli homeland.
Unit Yamam is about 200 members strong and comprises a headquarters element, an intelligence section and a small team responsible for the development of new operational techniques and testing new equipment. These central elements apart, the bulk of the unit is divided into a number of sections, each consisting of five teams, each containing operators with a particular specialization, so that the section includes within its numbers all the elements needed for a successful operation: roping team, entry team, medic team, sniping team, dog team, EOD team (demolition and bomb disposal). Thus, whereas an IDF special forces operation needs to assemble elements from different specialist units, in Yamam, they are all permanently part of the same unit, living, training and operating together.
Applicants for Yamam must be between 22 and 30 years of age and must have completed their three-year infantry service in the IDF with a level 7 of IDF training or higher, but no previous police experience is required. Unlike American SWAT teams, the YAMAM is a professional unit with only combat duties and no other police type work. The selection process includes a "hell week" said to be one of the hardest in the world. This level of difficulty is achieved because all the applicants are already seasoned combat soldiers, like the US Delta force.The skills they are looking for in every candidate are: intelligence, physical fitness, motivation, trustworthiness, accountability, maturity, stability, judgment, decisiveness, teamwork, influence, and communication. Training lasts 12 months and is carried out in the unit's own training center, although some use is made of the facilities at the IDF Counter Terror Warfare School (LOTAR, Unit 707.) The course is divided into an eight-month general CT training period at the end of which recruits are selected for their specialization and then concentrate for the remaining four months on that specialization. Upon graduation, individuals are posted to fill gaps in the sections. Yamam considers that it has several advantages over the IDF counter-terror units, first, because the men are more mature, most in their mid 30's and early 40's, and spend much longer in the unit than the equivalent military units, and, second, because the units contain a far broader range of ages and experience.
The Yamam is self-dependent, training its own operators in all fields, such as
snipingA sniper is a highly trained marksman who shoots targets from concealed positions or distances exceeding the capabilities of regular personnel. Snipers typically have specialized training and distinct high-precision rifles...
, reconnaissance, dog operating,
bomb disposalBomb disposal is the process by which hazardous explosive devices are rendered safe. Bomb disposal is an all encompassing term to describe the separate, but interrelated functions in the following fields:*Military:...
, etc. As a result, the Yamam has a rapid deployment time and high coordination between various squads (sniping squad, entry team, engagement force, etc.).
The Yamam's primary duties are:
- Hostage rescue
A hostage is a person or entity which is held by a captor. The original definition meant that this was handed over by one of two belligerent parties to the other or seized as security for the carrying out of an agreement, or as a preventive measure against certain acts of war...
.
- Offensive or preemptive operations.Direct action
- SWAT
A SWAT team is an elite tactical unit in American and some international law enforcement departments. They are trained to perform high-risk operations that fall outside of the abilities of regular officers...
duties - handling dangerous criminals. Arrests/Kidnaping
- Undercover police operations.
- VIP security.
Most of the Yamam's activity is classified, and published Yamam operations are often credited to other units. Nevertheless, the Yamam enjoys a high reputation among SF professionals and the Israeli public.
History
The Yamam was established after the
Ma'alot massacreThe Ma'alot massacre was an attack on May 15, 1974 in Ma'alot, Israel, in which 22 Israeli high school students, aged 14–16, from Safed were killed by three members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine...
, where a failed operation by military special forces units ended with 21 children murdered before the hostage takers were killed. Since hostage rescue in friendly territory is different from that in hostile areas, it was decided to establish an elite civilian force, which develops and practices a special CQB (Close Quarters Battles) doctrine for "counter-terrorism" operations in friendly territory and hostage rescue. In late 1974, the Yamam was established and has since fallen under the direct jurisdiction of the
Israel Border PoliceThe Israel Border Police is the military branch of the Israeli Police. It is also commonly known by its Hebrew abbreviation Magav , meaning border guard, whilst its members are colloquially known as Magavnikim...
— the combat arm of the
Israel PoliceThe Israel Police is a civilian force in the State of Israel. As with most other police forces in the world, its duties include crime fighting, traffic control and maintaining public safety...
.
Operational record 1974 - September 2000
The Yamam has carried out many paramilitary operations. Some of the missions known to the public prior to the
al-Aqsa IntifadaThe Second Intifada, also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada was the second Palestinian uprising, a period of intensified Palestinian-Israeli violence, which began in late September 2000...
are listed below:
- In March 1988, the Yamam was called into action after a group of three Palestinians hijacked a bus full of women returning from work at the Negev Nuclear Research Center
The Negev Nuclear Research Center is an Israeli nuclear installation located in the Negev desert, about thirteen kilometers to the south-east of the city of Dimona....
near DimonaDimona is an Israeli city in the Negev desert, to the south of Beersheba and west of the Dead Sea above the Arava valley in the Southern District of Israel. Its population at the end of 2007 was 33,600.-Formation:...
, in an incident known as the "Mothers Bus". The Yamam struck, killing all three hijackers, but not managing to prevent three Israeli passengers from being killed.
- On March 3, 2000, the Yamam captured an armed group hidden in the Israeli-Arab town of Taibe with the aid of Sayeret Duvdevan and an IDF Caterpillar D9
The Israeli Armored CAT D9 — nicknamed Doobi — is a Caterpillar D9 armored bulldozer that was modified by the Israel Defence Forces, Israeli Military Industries and Israel Aerospace Industries to increase the survivability of the armored bulldozer in hostile environments and enable it...
bulldozerA bulldozer is a crawler , equipped with a substantial metal plate , used to push large quantities of soil, sand, rubble, etc., during construction work...
. In the end of the raid, one man was arrested and four were killed.http://www.isayeret.com/content/operations/taibeh.htm (password-restricted link)
Equipment
- Glock-17 Pistol
- Glock-18c SMG
- Glock-19 Pistol
- Glock-26 back-up weapon
- Tavor TAR-21 Assault Rifle in all versions
- Para Micro-Uzi
- M4 carbine
The M4 carbine is a family of firearms tracing its lineage back to earlier carbine versions of the M16, all based on the original AR-15 made by ArmaLite. It is a shorter and lighter version of the M16A2 assault rifle, achieving 80% parts commonality with the M16A2...
- Remington 870
The Remington Model 870 is a U.S.-made pump-action shotgun manufactured by Remington Arms Company, Inc. It is widely used by the public for target shooting, hunting, and self-defense...
Combat Shotgun
- M24 Sniper Weapon System
See also
- Israeli Special Forces:
- Sayeret
Sayeret , 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...
- Sayeret Matkal
Sayeret Matkal is an elite special forces unit of the Israeli Defence Force . Its main roles are counter-terrorism, deep reconnaissance and intelligence gathering, but the unit is first and foremost a field intelligence-gathering unit, used to obtain strategic intelligence behind enemy lines...
- Shayetet 13
Shayetet 13 is an elite Israel Defense Forces naval Special forces unit. The unit is considered one of the top-three SF units in Israel . S'13 is the unit that specializes in maritime hostage rescue and counter-terrorist missions...
- Israeli security forces
Security forces in Israel include a variety of organizations, including law enforcement, military, paramilitary, governmental, and intelligence agencies.-Military:...
:
- Israel Border Police
The Israel Border Police is the military branch of the Israeli Police. It is also commonly known by its Hebrew abbreviation Magav , meaning border guard, whilst its members are colloquially known as Magavnikim...
- Israeli police
- Israeli Defence Forces
- Shin Bet
- Similar foreign counter terrorism units: