Yahalom (IDF)

Special Operations Engineering Unit
Special Operations Engineering Unit
Yahalom
	Combat Engineering Unit for Special Operations - Yahalom
Active	1995 - present
Country	Israel
Allegiance	Israel Defense Forces
Branch	Israeli Ground Forces
Type	Sayeret
Size	Classified
Part of	Israeli Combat Engineering Corps
Garrison/HQ	Camp Emmanuel
Colors	Silver

Yahalom (Hebrew: יהל"ם, meaning Diamond; also a backronym of יחידה הנדסית למשימות מיוחדות, Special Operations Engineering Unit)^[1]^[2] is a sayeret (special operations forces) unit of the Israeli Combat Engineering Corps of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Organization and activities

Role

Yahalom specializes in special engineering missions that include:

Accurate demolition through pinpoint planting of explosives
CBRNE
consequence management
Searching, extracting, and destroying CBRN weapons and explosives
Tactical emergency medical service and
medevac
when injured by CBRN weapons, and after incidents associated with defusing and disposing of bombs or high-yield explosives
Commando-style raid operations
Counterinsurgency and counterterrorism (CT)
Military special operations against guerrilla warfare^{[dubious – discuss]}
Defusing and disposal of bombs, land mines, and unexploded ordnance¹
Developing advanced methods and tools for demolition and
EOD
Teaching and training engineering corps soldiers and other special units in demolition and EOD
Maritime sabotage and obstacle breaching
Route reconnaissance and clearing routes of IEDs
Searching and destroying
smuggling tunnels

General activities

Yahalom is a classified unit and almost none of its special activities are exposed to the public. Public accounts of its activities usually just credit a "combat engineering force"; a term that can equally describe regular Engineering sappers, IDF Caterpillar D9 operators and infantry engineering companies. Jane's Defence Weekly has claimed that Yahalom are working closely with Sayeret Matkal and Shayetet 13, by providing them with demolition, explosive and sabotage skills.^{[citation needed]} Most of the equipment that Yahalom has developed for its missions is classified. Yahalom maintains secrecy to make it more difficult for enemies to develop countermeasures.

Sub-units

Yael ("
counter terror, and maritime engineering missions. The YAEL team has destroyed military and civilian infrastructure that have been identified as hiding weapons caches, tunnels used to smuggle weapons, and firing positions.^{[citation needed}
]

SAP ("EOD Unit") - an EOD unit that removes
Israel-Lebanon border and bombs Palestinians have planted in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.^{[citation needed]} They often use armored bulldozers
when executing those missions. SAP is initials for Bomb disposal.

Samur ("
Philadelphi Route Smuggling tunnel experts team into Yahalom to form the Samur platoon.^{[citation needed}
]. Samur is also initials for Slikim (Caches) and Minharot (Caves or Tunnels)

Midron Mushlag ("Snowy Slope") - a unit whose expertise is penetrating buildings using hot breaching techniques using explosives charges, or cold breaching techniques using hydraulic expanders, crow bars and lock picks.

Hevzek ("Flash") - a unit that operated military robots - defunct.
SAPIR ("Sapphire") - Aerial ordnance EOD Unit, stationed at major IAF bases and tasked with removal of air ordnance such as bombs, missiles, rockets, etc. It is also tasked with safe removal of unexploded enemy ordnance inside the base perimeter. SAPIR is initials for SAP (Bomb disposal) and Avir (air.)
Sayfan ("Avocet") -
CBRNE
unit, trained to respond to threats from weapons of mass destruction, mostly focused on chemical weaponry.
Givol ("Flower stem") -
CBRN
disposal unit, composed of reserve service personnel.