"Emerging from the shadows, looking the terrorists deep in the eyes": this is how the team that eliminated the terrorist in Jaffa works

Behind the shooting of the terrorist who carried out the attack in Tel Aviv are the fighters from the Tequila team, the GSS operational unit. From the moment the intelligence information is received, through the complex operations, to standing at zero range in front of the terrorists.

Amir Bohbot

10/04/2022

Sunday, 10 April 2022, 13:16

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The activity of the security forces in Jenin.

April 2, 2022 (Section 27A of the Copyright Law)

The two fighters who operated in Jaffa, located and assaulted the armed terrorist who carried out the attack in Tel Aviv, are fighters from the GSS operational unit, who usually carry out intelligence gathering activities. They called for him to stop. In response, he fired ten bullets at them. The fighters of the operational unit attacked him and killed him

. The approximate travel route.

The combat teams of the IDF and the GSS 'secret unit, the "Operation", were traveling in several vehicles in the Jerusalem area, waiting for more pieces of information in real time, looking for a ticking bomb.

After long nerve-wracking minutes, a YMCA and "operational" team identified the terrorist in the area of ​​Kibbutz Ramat Rachel near the Talpiot neighborhood of Jerusalem. Focused on the event, in your attempt to get out of it well.

This means?

stay alive.

That the terrorists will be the ones to explode, and I will be the one to jump out of the car 3-2 meters in front of them.

In the moment of truth you are a technical worker.

Not emotional.

What prepares you?

Not the training.

The values ​​of the task, the absolute belief in the way, in the task.

You understand that if you do not do that, there are a hundred people in Ramat Rachel in danger. "

In September 2000, a violent Palestinian uprising against Israel began, which very quickly became what was called the "Second Intifada."

Suicide bombers armed with explosive belts and car bombs blew up cafes, shopping malls, shuttle stations, and buses.

GSS coordinators recovered very quickly and brought information on the names of the terrorists and aides who had just left the house or hiding place and were on their way to explode in the heart of the cities.

More on Walla!

This is the force that eliminated the three terrorists in Jenin

To the full article

Border Police's Tequila Team (Photo: Official Website, Border Police)

The head of the GSS at the time, Avi Dichter, and senior members of the organization's operations division managed to form an operating concept called "Tequila", teams of YMCA and "operational" fighters, who would receive the information and launch a manhunt for terrorists in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, or In the depths of the State of Israel in order to thwart terrorist attacks and suicide with the help of an accurate intelligence-gathering craft that flows to them through real-time radios and cell phones.

"The first incident took place in Wadi Ara," a senior police official said in those days. "Information was received about a vehicle from Jenin with a suicide bomber on its way to carry out an attack. Then it's history, but from that moment everything grew between the GSS and the Israel Police and they called it 'tequila'.

It should be said to the credit of Commissioner Aharonishki, who took office in January 2001, that he understood very well the context and usefulness of Tequila.

"The GSS Operations Division in those days was the engine of many good things that happened in the second intifada.

Unlike many other bodies in the defense establishment, including the IDF, the GSS was quick to exit the initial market of the second intifada.

A few months.

It took the IDF a year plus. The GSS realized very quickly that the environment had changed and new intelligence and operational tools needed to be put in place.

They came out with it with all their might.

" The country, "he explained." Suddenly Highway 1 is closed from end to end and people are looking for a suicide bomber in the car.

Then you polish that perception, sharpen and renovate.

It has been constantly evolving and improving. "

Border Police's Tequila Team (Photo: Official Website, Border Police)

The only organization in the State of Israel that has the ability to take something and turn it into an operation within minutes is only the GSS. It is an organization but works as a unit. When it comes to coordinating in Hebron Modiin, "After only 20 seconds it is at the headquarters in Tel Aviv, and after a minute someone gets it there. After ten minutes he gets approval from the deputy head of service or the head of the service to go into action. This is one of the huge benefits of this organization."

Dichter used to define the work of the GSS and the Israel Defense Forces in those days as a search for "needle in a pile of needles."

This is not a mistake, because it is a surgical operation, to locate a terrorist in another case with an assistant, in the heart of a crowded area or laden with vehicles, isolate them and thwart an attack before they explode or operate a car bomb and kill civilians.

A senior GSS official who worked with GSS and YMCA's tequila teams said that after Operation Defensive Shield and the series of subsequent operations, there was a decrease in the number of terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip, but terrorist organizations tried to find other ways to infiltrate Israel. One of the options was through Axis VIII, terrorists exiting the Gaza Strip via the Philadelphi Axis to Egyptian Rafah, marching along the Egyptian-Israeli border line and infiltrating an insecure area into Israeli territory. Approximately waiting for the moment of crossing.

Border Police's Tequila Team (Photo: Official Website, Border Police)

"There are countless situations for tequila. The great thing about the GSS is not only to bring in the initial intelligence but to pinpoint it in real time.

Sometimes it will be a coordinator who runs an agent, who monitors a vehicle or person and directs it over the phone.

Sometimes the agent would sit next to the suicide bomber - a huge tension for everyone - sometimes the agent would just move there, car and phone if there was and from that moment on the coordinator had to lead a crazy effort to understand where the terrorist and assistant were going now.

It is such a complex process that it requires a high level of professionalism and trust in people.

"Sometimes you have to set up surveillance on several travel routes," said a former senior GSS official.

"The GSS and the IDF have reached the level of art when they have already managed to control the area with the help of advanced technology, high-quality intelligence, a fusion of vast information and aircraft in the air, and choose the place and timing of the assassination or arrest," the senior official continued.

"The main difference from the beginning of the second intifada to these days is the technological leap that the GSS has undergone and the shell of professionals such as desks, producers and others who help GSS coordinators close intelligence and operational circles that allow combat teams to operate with great precision in short schedules."

The assassination of the terrorist who carried out the attack in Jaffa on Friday morning, as well as the thwarting of the attack at the Araba junction in the Jenin sub-district last week by the GSS and YMCA staff, gave a glimpse into the quality of Shin Bet intelligence but mainly the courage of the YMCA ".

The nerve-wracking follow-up that lasted for days;

Tumultuous operations and assimilation into Palestinian territory in the most dangerous places such as refugee camps;

The fear that the terrorists will carry out a diversionary operation and flee;

Choosing the timing of the collision with the vehicle to stop terrorists, who will fight to the last drop of blood and sacrifice themselves in heroic action;

Pulling out rifles and pistols and fighting a client from action movies - all of these are further evidence of the intimacy created between the teams of fighters who are on 24/7 alert all over the country to thwart an exploding terror.

Since the beginning of the year, "Tequila" teams have been activated in 15 cases, including the last arrest on Road 6. "The Tequila team is the GSS 'weapon to neutralize the terrorists in real time.

Despite the construction of the barrier at the seam line, it is enough that there is a loophole and it goes out to Israel and escapes you.

You have to combine technology, operations, GSS coordinators and police. But there were less good events, for example there was information and we did not manage to translate it into action on the ground, there were frustrating cases of accurate information, the forces in the hunt and the terrorist exploded. "Iron and screws. There was also a case in which a suicide bomber with explosive underwear exploded on our coordinator," said the former GSS senior, adding, "The sequence of events over the years has strengthened the cooperation between the GSS and the GSS.

This is a very high level of intimacy.

Close friendships are formed.

In the end these are teams that face an insane level of risk.

Very professional.

Mature in relation to their age.

Fighters of the IDF elite units.

You do not have to go through a long chain of approvals with senior IDF officials to get cooperation with a General Staff patrol, Squadron 13 or Sheldag. Therefore, the IDF fighters are on constant alert for the bounce.

"Usually there will not be time to think too much and all the fighters will have is to wait for the coordinator's information."

The attacks in Tel Aviv, Be'er Sheva, Hadera and Bnei Brak, such as the wounding of the IDF fighters, once again indicate that in the war on terror there is no insurance certificate and 100% frustration cannot be guaranteed. The security source concludes, And within Israel with the police, GSS members see themselves as responsible for any attack that has taken place. Many of them carry scars, pictures and faces of the victims of the attacks who failed to thwart.

The past week has reminded us how much every attack with casualties shakes an entire country and how deceptive the existing silence is.

Terrorist attacks every night.

For most of them, the public was not exposed at all. "

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