IDF Oketz canine commando unit holds week-long drill
With intelligence estimates pointing to the Palestinian arena as being a hotbed of threats that risk a major escalation, IDF’s canine unit called in for surprise week-long drill simulating missions to locate MIAs, finding explosives and countering terror attacks in Gaza, West Bank.
The men and women of the IDF's Oketz Unit of canine special forces have been exercising in preparation for a sudden outbreak of hostilities between Israel and the Palestinians in a vast, unit-wide drill.
Despite rising tensions in the north, the army still considers the Palestinian arena to be more combustible, both within and without the Gaza Strip. The army's intelligence estimates over the past year show chances for escalation and a conflict breaking out in the Palestinian theater have grown considerably. Despite tensions with Gaza over the past month, the threat levels are especially relevant to the West Bank.
War may well break out in one of the two Palestinian arenas. Similarly to the kidnapping of three Israeli boys in 2014, which ended up escalating into Operation Protective Edge, estimates are similar—perhaps even heightened—for 2018.
The army's estimates have been put into practice on the ground, in a series of training exercises and drills the IDF has conducted recently to prepare its forces for a possible outbreak of escalation in the West Bank. One such drill was the one held by the Oketz Unit, which belongs to GOC Army Headquarters.
The training session, the largest held by Oketz in the past few years, was a week-long exercise. Some of the Oketz canines were killed in operational activity during Operation Protective Edge, and current dogs and their operators drilled a similar scenario, of fighting in Israel's southern frontier, in Gaza.
The drill saw soldiers and dogs practicing a new battle technique: sending a combat-ready team into the Judea and Samaria sector and operating combined forces for fighting in the West Bank, with emphasis on locating armaments.
The drill included a vast reserve call-up with reservists being ordered to show within 12 hours and simulated the unit operating both independently and as part of a larger whole of maneuvering forces. The soldiers and their dogs trained in operating exercises, linking up with forces using air force helicopters and assisting special forces teams in located kidnapped individuals.
The exercise commenced in Central Command's training base near Beit Guvrin, from which the forces were airlifted to the Gaza Division. All of the unit's capabilities were put through rigorous testing during the intensive exercise: chasing and assailing terrorists and locating explosives and missing persons. The soldiers—and their canine cohorts—also picked up some experience in offensive raids on enemy territory, urban warfare and warfare on open land, fighting in tunnels, foiling enemy penetrations into Israeli land and more.
The highly-trained dogs were affixed with varied technological devices to help their handlers turn them into a four-legged "operational punches."
"Oketz soldiers are at the forefront of maneuvering forces during wartime, and they are tasked with meeting unique mental and physical challenges head-on," explained the unit's commander Lt.-Col. G.
