Stan187

Special undercover IDF commandos have captured a senior commander in Hamas's military wing in the southern Gaza Strip, sources in group said on Saturday.

Mohawah al-Qadi, a senior member of the organization's armed wing and a commander in the Executive Force, was nabbed late Friday by undercover troops in the town of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

"A special Zionist force wearing Executive Force uniform entered George street in eastern Rafah in a civilian Subaru car and 0then headed towards the Sufa crossing" with Israel, Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said in a statement.

IDF officials had no immediate comment.

Al-Qadi, arrested together with his assistant Saqer Abd al-Al, was "responsible for the Executive Force public relations," the group said.

At first Hamas officials thought the man was taken by Fatah loyalists on the background of clashes taking place between loyalists of the two groups in Gaza since Friday morning. Only when the Subaru car carrying the detainee exited the Gaza Strip accompanied by helicopters they realized he was taken by IDF troops masquerading as Arabs.

According to another report quoted by Israel Radio, the car travelled to Dahaniyeh airport in Gaza and an IAF chopper took the man from there.

Palestinian sources also said the man was somehow connected with the kidnapping of IDF soldier Cpl. Gilad Schalit in June 2006.

While the IDF regularly carries out ground and air raids across the Gaza Strip to curb incessant Kassam rocket fire, the operation Friday was especially daring, undertaken two kilometers inside the Gaza Strip in an area saturated with Hamas gunmen and watchmen.

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The Russian Navy is still a threat, but only to those unlucky enough to be Russian sailors.-highsea

ozjohn39

Up the reward on OBL to a $$$billion and send these blokes to go and pick him up.


John

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"Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you".

Stan187

Shoot, I've met one of the guys who was in this unit 4 years ago. Forget your money, they'd go nab OBL for free.

entropy

Sayeret Matkal?

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If memory serves...

Stan187

Sayeret Duvdevan. They usually operate in the West Bank, and the above article is archetypal of how they work. There used to be a parallel unit called Sayeret Shimshon, which was the Duvdevan of the Gaza Strip. But, in 1995 I believe Shimshon was deactivated, so I guess Duvdevan works both parts of the disputed territories now.

Easily the hardest unit to get into outside of the General Staff units like Matkal, Shaldag and Shayetet. Something like 99 of 100 applicants fail or are rejected.

entropy

How is the situation with the Israeli elite units nowadays? I remember that they were writing their government a letter complaining about Evil Zionism, something that I find unacceptable of an elite regiment. I guess the morale has gone up since then.

Stan187

I've never heard of this. If you got something I could read about the following, I'd be very interested. Soldiers in Israel just like in the United States are supposed officially be apolitical beings.

I don't think you can generalize the situation with Israeli elite units anyway. There are just so many of them, and each of them draft people and trains them like two-three times per year. There are so many operators and ex-operators walking around Israel that it's insane. Just figure that, they've got lots and lots of redundant units with similar capabilities and training. Now figure that every one of these units drafts a company or platoon worth of people a few times annually. Then a lot of these guys are cut, but even those who make it, there is sooo many people. On top of that, there are even more ginormous numbers of people who at one point were in maslul (special operations probationary period, where those who qualify after the 3-day tryout are trained and quite a few fail or drop out). Walk into any store in Israel, and there is probably a former special operations guy there. What's the point of me saying all this? It's really hard to generalize what's going with such a large and diverse community.

entropy

Sorry for quoting Wikipedia, but

Sayeret Matkal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Israeli pilots did the same thing.

Stan187

Well, they got booted. And their commander was completely correct, they abused their membership for political aims. They got what they deserved.

I don't imagine this is much of a problem. Remember these are 13 reserve operators. There is so many thousands out there, that their number pales in comparison. Refuseniks are not treated well in most of Israeli society, and amen to that. This is exactly what it was, a bunch of self-righteous *******s. They didn't write their letter as private individuals, as far as I understood, but as military professionals. And they shamed their parent unit as a result.

Expat Canuck

If someone feels they are doing something wrong they are entitled to feel that way. They wrote their letter as military professionals because that's what ther are. If they don't like the fact that they have to sheild towns in land that Isreal forcefully took can you blame them?

Maybe if Isreal didn't have mandatory service they wouldn't have this issue but the fact remains that they do and these are just the onces that have the balls to say they don't like what they are doing. I can assure you that there are far more people that dislike what they are doing but as you said "Refuseniks are not treated well in most of Israeli society", seems to be fear that is keeping their mouths shut.

I agree that Isreal should stand up for itself but at times they can be a little heavy handed granted I can understand why but it doesn't mean they all have to like it.

Just my two cents.

Stan187

If they said it in the name of their unit, they are in the wrong.

The Territories are where these guys operate. If they are unwilling to do so, they forfeit the priveledge of being in that unit. And that's exactly what happened.

You can be a conscientious objector to Iraq and Afghanistan in the US Army. But if you are part of Delta Force that gets deployed over to those locales, you cannot participate in missions with your unit, so you would probably be uneligible to stay in said unit.