When shots rang out again, we knew we had to storm the bus | The Times of Israel

March 7,

In 1988,

Anti-terrorism

The Israeli police rescued eight Israeli civilians held by terrorists on a bus near Dimona. Nowadays

The organization is known for the arduous and arduous tasks performed in the seemingly endless fight against terrorism, and is highly respected. But the drizzle in March was the first time in the desert

A classic hostage rescue mission has been performed, and its success has made the unit famous from a relatively unknown world. I am a member of the rescue team.

That day

one year later

During the attack and rescue of the mother bus, a memorial service was held for the three employees of the Nuclear Research Institute (Victor Ram, Rina Shiratzky and Miriam Ben-Yair) who died. It was held in a large auditorium in Beersheva, where many people gathered-family members, colleagues, and others related to the institute and its work. A senior police officer

The host said that David Kraus was invited to speak as a representative of the police, "The police are executed by those people." However, as far as I know, no members of the official rescue team were present. formal.

In fact, one of the rescuers was there. Israel is Israel, "really." One of my uncles is the head of the institute's welfare department. He thinks it makes sense for some rescued hostages to meet at least one rescuer. I'm no longer

By this time, my attendance was purely personal. Few people know, and of course no one has announced this. Therefore, I was smuggled and had to pay tribute to the people who died that day. And got to know some people I helped rescue.

A series of fate made me publicly kidnapped as one of the hostages. Back to mine

A few days before my marriage, I shared an apartment with an old friend Zaq in a town near Jerusalem. The day after the rescue, Zach called me on the way to work. Zaq knew that I was making a living and what I did the day before. He asked me if I had rescued a woman in a turquoise sweater when I got off the bus. I told him I did, but how did he know? He said that he picked up the newspaper at a stall at the Central Bus Station in Jerusalem, and there was a picture of this woman and me on the front page of Reuters.

, Is one of the big daily newspapers. I was shocked-our identities were originally secret!

Zaq told me not to worry, the paper struck a thick black line on my eye. But how did he know me? Obviously, my blond mustache is a great gift. Therefore, although my friends know what I did that day, no one else knows. Reflecting on it, I think it's not that bad situation at all.

My uncle knows. He told me that the woman who saw me holding my hand on the front page of Israel's most popular newspaper was Ronit. She lives in Omer and she wants to see me. After the memorial ceremony, my uncle took me to Omer to meet Ronit and Rachel Matza, another hostage who was rescued in Rachel's house. The three of us were relaxing in Rachel's living room, drinking coffee and chatting.

I don’t remember much, but I do remember what Ronnett and Rachel told me about rescue work. It's like thunder and lightning. They said they heard a quick shot, and then there was a brief panic, and suddenly there were "soldiers" everywhere. Of course, this should be the case. Totally pleasantly surprised.

As for my own opinion? This is it.

Monday, March 7, 1988, was a rare morning.

Base, "somewhere in the middle of the country". All the personnel in the 3rd unit of our army sniffed on our bed. We all got up the night before and enjoyed the Puim Festival party in this unit. The party is not a grand gathering, that is not our style, anyway, there are two troops on standby and overnight at the base. Instead, all members of the department, as well as their wives and girlfriends, participated in an inter-unit comedy sketching competition.

However, our planned bed rest activity that Monday morning was interrupted by the harsh sound of the base emergency alarm bell. When those bells ring, you will get dressed as soon as possible and go straight to the van. This is an operation that you don't need to think about, it's just another exercise. You don’t have to worry about brushing your teeth or using deodorant – expect your next customer to not be too angry about your bathroom. And, you don’t have to worry about briefings – you can get briefings via the radio whenever you arrive in an emergency. The important thing is: get on the road as soon as possible.

The van we use is an aging Dodge Ram. They haven't completely collapsed yet, but, too often, people will refuse to start, and all of us must go out and push things forward. Their replacement, GMC, has already been ordered, but at the same time, we have to endure. Murphy's Law states that on this day,

The rams of our troops, I believe,

The Rams of the army decided not to start. Everyone got off the horse and started the rams, and after a few minutes, we looked more like Keystone Kops instead of boasting

Special Anti-Terrorism Unit.

Soon all the engines are running and we are moving forward. Someone yelled that we were shorter, and the drama followed.

I haven't slept like the rest of us, but have been running for a while and haven't come back. It's not surprising. Danny is an immigrant from the former Soviet Union and a fitness fanatic. We are all very suitable-this is a job requirement-but he takes adaptability to the next level. No matter how late he goes to bed, he will never miss the scheduled exercise plan. He has won the Judo championship in Russia and has served in IDF

. He is the most type A person I have ever seen. People are upset about waking him up in the morning because he often reacts by physically attacking you. When it's my turn, I stab him with a broom to keep him in range. He had been disciplined in the army. When I asked him what was going on, he replied with one word, "violence." When he was actually awake, we got along well. He is very smart and good at reading. We found him running on a road near the base, his team tied him to their Ram, and we all left.

Sam

Through the radio, we quickly understood the meaning of flaps. Some terrorists crossed the Egyptian border from the Sinai Desert, hijacked cars, and were in remote places in the south. Obstacles are being erected, but there is currently no way to explain how the situation will develop.

Charlie Chelouche was sitting in the commander's chair of my van. He came from a sleepy Moshav from the north, always in my

He studied in 1986. He combines deep friendliness and sharpness with excellent combat skills and is regarded as the leader of the future. I often act as his deputy, which means we work a lot together. He used to idolize singer Shlomo Artzi. No matter where we drive, we are playing specific Shlomo Artzi tapes, so much so that we joked that the tape player can play all the songs on its own without the tape. But there is no Shlomo Artzi now. Charlie is busy broadcasting, trying to get as much information as possible.

With me is my roommate ItzikP. He is from Sderot. He grew up with his friend Rafi C. and joined

Together, all of us including Charlie (Charlie) are together

course. He is another fitness fanatic, running around. If we had to walk a few kilometers, he would often take off his shorts and ran, while the rest of us got in a truck. He has the physique of a male model. With all the masculinity, he has strong empathy and great sensitivity. He makes me very frustrated because he has been working hard to make a plan to beat the national lottery and win the grand prize. He is a very acclaimed operator and one of my closest friends.

Our driver is my third roommate, AviD from Rehovot. He is tall and dark, very talkative, and amiable. Avi likes to drive, he will seize every opportunity to grab the steering wheel. He is also a motorcycle fanatic. Just the previous year, he owned a shiny Kawasaki 500cc bike and collided head-on with the car. He himself was thrown into a nearby wheat field, and it took the emergency rescue team half an hour to arrive

he! Miraculously, only a few broken vertebrae were left when he escaped, but there was no spinal cord injury, and six weeks later, he was back to work. Then, he withdrew the insurance money from the total Kawasaki 500 and bought Kawasaki 1000 for himself! Well, of course! If you fail to kill yourself with Kawasaki 500, then you will double the size of the engine and thus double the chance! Some of us want to put life insurance on him, and we ourselves are called beneficiaries. I think about seven of us are interested in this "investment". We thought of money in the bank. However, before our plan was realized, Avi's brand new bicycle was stolen from outside his apartment.

Bicycle is

Insured.

Therefore, Avi is alive (he is still alive today) and all of us are still poor.

Despite this, Avi was an amazing driver and performed well that day. When we were in rush hour traffic in Beersheva, the lights flickered and police sirens sounded. He drove like a bicycle, weaving and hiding, and found a space between us that did not exist. At that critical moment, he was the correct driver.

By this time, the situation had changed. We were told that the terrorists hijacked a "tour bus" near the Arro junction south of Dimona and took hostages. Now very classic

jobs.

(We only discovered the actual situation later. Near Nafka prison, terrorists ambushed a car with

They are participating in an orienteering competition. Those unarmed soldiers can escape from the car and avoid terrorist attacks. The terrorist drove into the car. Senior officials among the five people sounded the alarm. The police set up some roadblocks, but the terrorists shot through at least one of them. In the end, they encountered a roadblock consisting of a semi-trailer truck used by the police to block the road.

The bus took the workers to the Nuclear Research Institute in Dimona. The bus was specially arranged for the parents’ employees, who had to take their children to school, so they left Birseva after eight in the morning. Except for the passengers, most of the passengers are mothers, a widow named Victor Ram (Victor Ram). The terrorist jumped out of the car frantically and ran to the bus. Fortunately, the bus driver has opened well. He noted what had happened, immediately opened the door and yelled for everyone to run. Many passengers were able to escape, but ten women and Victor Ram were trapped by terrorists on the bus. )

After Beer Sheva, we continued south along the desert road. Once, I looked to the western window and found at least one Air Force CH-53 Seahorse

The helicopter flew parallel to us, very low. "Oh, look over there," I said to the team. "its

. "I'm not sure that is

(This is the “Reconnaissance Unit of the General Staff”). It is the Army’s Hostage Rescue Unit (HRU), but considering the height and heading of the chopper and

You can easily use the helicopter lift function. It turned out that I was right.

The relationship between

with

Is a complicated one.

It used to be and is now the main special operations force of the Army. Undoubtedly, these people were selected from the most physically robust and psychologically indestructible candidates, and they all came to the induction training center

The soldiers belong to their own class. They have played an outstanding role in strategic reconnaissance and special missions behind enemy lines, and because of their unparalleled quality of personnel, they have traditionally been the first choice for hostage rescue missions by the authorities.

But their performance in the hostage rescue has a mixed record. On the one hand, they were responsible for the imaginative Sabena 571 takeoff at Lod Airport in May 1972 (Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak participated in the aircraft). It's hard to believe that until they arrived at the airport that day, they had never actually landed a plane, but they were masters of improvisation. Of course, no one will forget the success of Operation Thunder on July 3-4, 1976

Agents, with the support of other support units, rescued Israeli hostages in Entebbe, a hostile territory more than 2,000 miles away from their homes. The creativity and courage of planners turned impossible into feasible, and the skills and quick thinking of field operators turned early mistakes into excellent results.

But things are not always smooth sailing. In May 1974, three Palestinian terrorists who entered Israel from southern Lebanon carried out homicidal atrocities in Ma'alot, and finally entered the Netiv Meir school and hijacked 115 Hostage-High school students from Safed travel with their teacher in a school.

The terrorist’s attempt to step down has lost the surprising key element. The terrorist has time to kill 22 high school students and 3 adults, and blow them up before the other 50 hostages are killed. The success of hostage rescue missions is always in the lead, which is why military personnel around the world only assign the best personnel to try them, so be careful when judging failure. However, I think that the observation plan and execution are flawed and not too harsh. The public is upset, and policymakers want to show that they are doing everything they can to avoid another Marot incident.

therefore,

It's brought up. The idea is to create an expert group composed of professional professionals as the takeover department for any future hostage incidents. Administratively, the logical location of such units is the border guards, paramilitary armed forces or

The Israeli police have hired professional paramilitary police officers to assume non-command and active roles. In the Israel Defense Forces, long-serving permanent personnel are officials, or staff members or warrant officers at the service desk. There are no professional private soldiers. But the border guards have professional combatants who are forty years old.

In theory, that's all. of

It was still the nestling force. In 1975, there was no terrorist hostage taking at the Savoy Hotel. Later, Misgav Am did not participate in 1980.

The first real chance was in April 1984, in a little-known place in the Gaza Strip called Deir el-Balah. This event is recognized as a Bus 300 event.

Since long after the rescue was completed, the extrajudicial executions killed two living terrorists, the "Bus 300 Incident" achieved an extraordinary performance. This incident caused a national media storm. At the same time, another aspect of this matter

And its agents.

Four terrorist hijackers armed with knives and a suitcase with improvised explosive devices took control of the No. 300 bus that departed from Tel Aviv to Ashkelon at 7:30 in the evening. They ordered the driver to go to the Egyptian border. After a fierce chase and gun battle, the bus was finally crippled in the Palestinian refugee camp Deir el-Balah.

of

It was the first qualified force deployed on the scene. indeed,

Earlier in the day, the three assault troops had been practicing getting off the bus! It was night time,

Operators can deploy close to the bus and prepare to remove it. Confidence is high. of

Having relied heavily on the heavy use of snipers, several snipers were deployed in Deir el-Balah and reported that they aimed at the target. of

The commander is convinced that the whole incident can be ended with a one-word command and a sniper salvo (of course, it must be supported by a full-scale attack, but this is only to confirm that the sniper has successfully brought four terrorists).

However, the police declared the area a closed military zone and transferred responsibility to the army. I don’t know who the army commander is, but later explained to us that although he knew there was

And what his mission should be, he was not familiar with the capabilities of the unit, nor did he understand any of its personnel.

He ordered

Stand down

Took over the rescue mission. Two of the four terrorists and one hostage were killed by gunfire from rescuers, and the other two terrorists were captured. with

The guy stood by, helpless.

After years of training and preparation, in such a moment, the first real opportunity to perform the disassembly was robbed, which caused great pain among many people.

Agent. Some people have to hand over certain items from their dedicated kits, which makes the facts even more disappointing.

Operators so that they can execute their own operation plan. The feeling at the time was: If they don't even have this toolkit, how can they be better prepared for this kind of rescue than us?

Some people decide to be there and then resign instead of extending the contract and feel

Will never be assigned a real delisting. But others, including the army's orders, did not give up. They are determined to invest in large-scale public relations activities to persuade various decision makers and stakeholders,

It is a world-class unit, and it can and should be entrusted to resolve any family hostage issues.

It was in the middle of this public relations event that I joined this department. When my course ended in November 1986, almost all the graduates joined Unit 3 under the command of Inspector Aharon Eksol. With curly hair and almost always grinning, Eksol is humorous and grandiose. He is the new army leader just like us, but he has a lot of experience and has been with us in most of our training. Everyone has confidence in him.

There are only three members of the army: army sergeant Izik A. And two army engineers Y. and Sassen Murdoch. In the end, Murdoch became a sergeant. Engineers used to use their skills to lure others' property to entertain themselves. Put the detonator on the toilet seat in various places, in the cigarette, and under the bed. One of the speakers-I think Mordoch-once had a "hate" with one of the members, Yosi. When Jussi opened the cupboard in the room, he put down a small detonator. Yosi fought back by sticking the boots of the glue gun to the floor while asleep. Then, the engineer began to take time. On a quiet day, he hid the lightning that was detonated by electricity in the mud near Yosi's car and installed it on the car's cabin lighting device. When Yosi went out to put things in the car, he didn't notice that half of the guys were looking at the gate, giggling like a girl. He opened the trunk and arms of the car! Yosi jumped out of his skin, and the dispute was over. Pranks aside, Mordoch III is the life and soul of the party, and it is also the supreme profession.

Then, we entered the standard training cycle and were interrupted by frequent operations, of which only a few messages were public. Many of these operations were secret raids or intelligence gatherings carried out on the territory, missions of this kind that became widely known on TV programs a few years later

. indeed,

Pioneering many undercover techniques, usually assigned to the most difficult and dangerous undercover tasks. I believe it is still the case today.

Of course, there is another promise: ability demonstration. As part of an intense public relations campaign,

The troops often demonstrate capabilities to government ministers, politicians, army commanders, police commanders, and other members of security agencies. These demonstrations involve showing guests the various functions of the unit. Technical demonstrations include sniper, close-range shooting, physical fitness, abseiling, demolition and many other skills and abilities. The culmination of the best presentation is usually a full-scale demolition exercise, with some visitors acting as hostages, while others viewing the procedure from the perspective of agents and commanders.

Although these demonstrations are not much different from normal training exercises in many ways, after a while, they become a joke. Some operators showed a cynical attitude and began to mention

Known as "theatre unit". Yaakov BG immigrants from France joined our troops at this time. Before joining IDF paratroopers, he served as an officer in the French army, teaching guerrilla warfare to legionaries. He is an avid climber and diver, and a natural prankster, so he fits the unit’s culture very well. He has an unusual handlebar beard that makes him look more French than the French. In one of these demonstrations, sometimes we would lie at a takeoff point for a simulated takeoff, and he would grin under that beard. , And then blinked. We then said in a cruel French accent:

", can be roughly translated as "all fakes" or "this is all a joke". It is always funny. Some guys mockingly said that we should add a stage to the removal training, in this stage, we will jump Hand over to

. That's not funny at all. but

? That makes us laugh every time. This became the unofficial motto of our troops.

It's hard to tell whether the demonstration helps. As we headed south, I saw the seahorse disappearing on the horizon in the direction of Dimona. This is anyone's guessing which unit should be selected for takeoff. Who will deploy this operation first? Even if we do deploy first, do we have to hand over the operation to

anyway? We don't know Avi keeps going.

Soon after we reached the Aro'er junction, we drove to a place only a few hundred meters from the target, just out of sight.

We were very anxious when we jumped out of the ram and ran back to pick up the bag with our personal gear bag. I rummaged through my site and decided what to eat. Despite the theory about what kits are needed, operators can order additional items, or if they order them themselves, or if they feel that the situation might come in handy in this way, these additional kits can be conveniently used.

The top priority is weapons, and the basic firearm for bus disassembly is a pistol. This is because once you are close to the bus or actually on the bus, the range is very short, and the pistol is an ideal weapon in a confined space. The buses are about 12 meters long and each

Trained operators can hit small targets in this range and even shoot with one hand. Indeed, the first thing

The training is a three-week intensive pistol course. There is a lot of competition among operators to understand who is the most skilled pistol. In the public mind

Surgical personnel are usually associated with a high level of pistol ability. We obtained the 9mm old Browning GP35 (after obtaining the first manufacturing license at the factory in Belgium, it was called Israel's "FN"). Browning was the gold standard for service pistols at the time, just like Glock is today, even though the design has a history of more than fifty years. They are not in our school bags, because we must carry them at all times, except when exercising. I want to know if Danny K. managed to bring him on.

The Uzi submachine gun is the standard main weapon (except for detachable buses). All of us got regular Uzis, these Uzis are equipped with outdated wooden pallets instead of more modern foldable metal pallets because they make less noise. Since all of us are trained so that we can go straight to someone in a dark room without hearing any sound, this is very wise.

In addition to the regular Uzis, we have just acquired the new Mini-Uzi. Mini-Uzi is a compact version of its big brother, with a simpler and quieter folding frame. It has a high cycle rate during automatic shooting, but we are trained to only use semi-automatic shooting with precise single shots. Some agents put their

I didn't expect to need it, but

Each operator’s bag contains a variety of weapons and other items, some of which are very peculiar, such as mufflers, target lighting systems, etc. These improvements have no value in the demolition of the bus during the day, we just left all these things behind.

For the protective kit, we all have helmets and soft armor. I am one of the few operators who have been assigned an additional ceramic armored vest, if I find it useful, I can get instructions to try. Soft body armor is only effective for stopping low-speed ammunition, such as ammunition fired from a pistol. Ceramic armor can reliably stop all 7.62mm NATO ammunition. Therefore, Soviet Kalashnikov’s 7.62mm bullet is slower and slightly lighter. This is a trouble I imagined terrorists would not encounter. I think, yes, we are going to face the bad guys who use AK, and you will never find a better time to try ceramic vests. It is bulky and clumsy, but I didn’t expect it to run too far, so I put it on, stuffed my Browning into the one-piece holster of the vest, and put a few spare Uzi magazines and a The stunned grenade was pushed into its pouch. . I brought a camouflage net, which is also the standard for bus demolition, and then I and Eksol participated in the "Immediate Action" (IA) briefing with other members of the unit on his command jeep.

After the HRU arrives on site, two disassembly plans need to be processed in parallel. One plan is a deliberate choice. The plan assumes that troops have enough time to gather intelligence and check the approach route, and sometimes it may be necessary for operators to train on similar targets nearby. Once ready, the commander of the unit will initiate a deliberate selection at the best moment. The other is the IA plan. If terrorists decide to end the game and start killing hostages, the IA plan will be triggered. Since this can happen at any time, an IA plan must be made immediately after the troops arrive on the scene, and agents need to be deployed immediately. Over time, the incoming intelligence will be used to refine the IA plan and provide critical data for careful selection in development.

When the target is a building or similar complex structure, deliberate choices may involve various improvements, such as concealment methods, hoisting from the roof, carefully designed distractions, etc. On the other hand, the initial IA plan for any goal is simple and usually only involves specifying which teams go to which entrance, assigning the fastest approach route, and defining the goals of each team in the target building. If the target is a bus, the difference between the IA plan and the deliberate choice will be much more subtle, because all buses are almost the same, and it is fairly standard to drill into the bus and take away terrorists.

Eksol quickly turned to us for help. The target bus is on the main road, which is approximately in the northwest to southeast direction, several hundred meters southeast of the intersection, facing the southeast direction. A force will raid from each side of the bus. Eksol’s Unit 3 was assigned to the southwest side of the bus, including violation of door regulations, while Inspector Avshalom Peled’s Unit 1 was assigned to the northeast. When the agents of Unit 2 arrive from home, they can be assigned to one of the deployed units. Eksol just created temporary teams and assigned each team to a different part of the bus. Because we know all these exercises instinctively, he doesn't need to say anything else.

During the conversation, Chief Inspector Menashe Arbiv arrived at the scene. We call him "Menash". He used to be my course commander and he impressed me deeply. he is

There is no doubt that he is very witty and possesses great courage. He is short in stature but has a big personality, but he has the rough face of a veteran. Although he is a senior employee of Eksol, as a unit employee-he is a research and development officer-he is not a member of the Third Army, but joins us as a super editor. Eksol assigned him to command the front door team, and I was one of the attackers of that team.

Rahaf

The hijacked bus is at the end of a shallow road, which means that we can approach it from the southwest without being observed from inside the bus. Unit 1’s method is more difficult, because on their side, the cutting ends exactly flush with the back of the bus, and the terrorists’ vision is better. If the bus goes fifty meters to the south, the terrorists inside will see the surrounding terrain within a few hundred meters

Instructions. This will make our method more difficult. There are some techniques that can be attacked even in this case, but the risk is higher. With the bus, Avshi's Unit 1 can be reasonably close to the back of the bus, but that is dodge. The personnel of our No. 3 unit may be very close to the side of the bus without being seen.

But the closer we get, the more difficult it is to look up and see what is happening. There are no leaves or other coverings, only the slope of the terrain and the rows of rocks at the cutting edge. In addition, due to the lack of good cover, snipers deployed on both sides of the bus with two assault troops will find it difficult to establish. As a result, three snipers hid themselves under a police jeep on the main road about a hundred meters southeast of the bus, and could see its length from the windshield. Others, especially Unit 1 in the northeast, can also be deployed and seen.

Before we start the final crawling method, we allocate the buses as close to the bus as possible. Once again, since these exercises have been fully drilled, he only needs to say a few words to each operator to know exactly what his mission is. Menash looked at me and said, "Mark, because you have a ceramic vest, you are the key person in the door." I didn't expect that choosing a ceramic vest would prepare me for the most dangerous job, so for a while I felt Surprised. But then I thought, that's good. This is the purpose of my registration. I know what to do. I know that if we do get the order, we will win.

On the east side of the road, Avshi's Unit 1 was ready just like us, and one of the bosses, Doron M., was in trouble. Duolun graduated from my own school

Of course he joined the K-9 force later

They have their own dogs and dog handlers, and they are cross-attached to the attacking troops. Doron is now assigned to work with Avshi's men. I don't know where his dogs are, but we usually don't use them when getting off the bus, so Doren is just another attacker. Doron is a serious person with a gentle manner, which conceals the fact that he is a real martial arts expert. This is what he said in a unit composed of people trained in martial arts. Many members of my course got married early in the service, and I believe Duolun is the first of us to do this. After the Puim festival party the day before, Doron felt very tired. Even though he felt that he needed to go to the bathroom urgently, he fell on the bed. Doron. The next morning, he didn't have a chance to find the relief he wanted because we were all awakened by the alarm bell, which made us climb to the ram and climb south. He suffered throughout the journey.

Unit 1 has been deployed and crawled as close to the target as possible without being exposed. Now that Doron was lying on the hard sand waiting in the long drizzle, Doron could no longer postpone his impulse. He put down his pants and did what he had to do. At a certain moment, the operator was recalled some methods to obtain some final information. When they start to return to the original jump position, the terrorists’ alertness increases, which means that they must maintain a lower level than ever before, and in the flat terrain without features, they are not sure of their exactness. Location bus. Regardless of. Doron's pungent poop provided them with a perfect location mark, and they redeployed in the correct location.

At the same time, the kitten of our No. 3 unit crawled near the edge of the mowing. There is a large rock, about 80 cm high and one meter or more wide, about ten meters away from the rock line that marks the cutting edge. We haven't gotten close to that line yet, so Menash was the first to order me to try to hide behind the rock. I walked a few steps forward until I was placed comfortably behind it and watched it carefully. Thirty meters away, I can see the roof of the bus and the top of the side windows. I can't look up to see more, because within this range, terrorists can find me and let me express their opinions. And set off IA. And began to kill the hostages. I stuffed myself in and was ready.

We are all trying to see as much as possible, so we will know what will happen. I can see that both doors are open, so I passed this information to me. Others reported that the action they saw was probably one of the terrorists, and they prepared a trip net on one of the doors, but there were not many details. Trip wires (connected to improvised explosive devices, of course) are an additional issue, but we are trained to deal with them. This is just other things we need to know.

We are settled now. I can slow down and think.

I want to know if my parents, brothers or anyone I grew up in the UK can imagine where I am now, lying in the mud with Browning in his hand, and almost no grenades from armed terrorists. I grew up in the Town Hall in Hackney, London. As a Jew, I have always realized that I am different from most people around me. Therefore, my parents sent me to a Jewish school. When I was in middle school, I received a scholarship from Carmel College. This is a Jewish "public" school, that is, a private school, sometimes called "Jewish Eton School." . It was a fee-charging agency. Many of my classmates came from very wealthy families, and because of their working-class background, I found myself somewhat different from mainstream society. Nevertheless, Carmel is still a good place for me, and I quickly found my niche market. The school provides many ways for students to engage in non-academic activities, especially in sports. I took advantage of this advantage. I am a good runner and a member of the rowing club. I have always been a keen military fan and have studied history, tactics, weapons and other military disciplines. As I grew older, I learned more about my father's background. He was a survivor of the Holocaust. His parents and one of his brothers were killed by the Nazis in France in 1943. Carmel did not fully promote Zionism, but I understand Israel, and I am keenly aware of the importance of a strong Jewish Israel to prevent anything like the Holocaust from happening to us again. The idea that I live in Israel and play a role in Israel’s defense began to surface in my mind.

Just one year later in 1982, after I dropped out of college, I decided to immigrate to Israel. A friend of mine emigrated early and participated in the Lebanon War. It seems that I was wasting time in the UK, and my peers are facing very real challenges. Therefore, I took action in 1983 and joined the IDF as an infantryman in November of the same year.

trip. My first attempt to join the special operations forces failed because I was not accepted by me

-I am too immature. But I think I am a good fighter, because I won the company's "Best Talent" award after the basic training. I have made good friends and excellent leaders, but as an immigrant, I feel a little different again. But I am used to it now, and soon found my place. When I completed the enlistment service in 1985, I received a letter inviting me to apply to join the association.

. This was another opportunity for me to enter the Israeli forces for special operations, and I seized it. I passed

Choose, then their process. In November 1986, I joined Troop 3. I finally hit the target. Nevertheless, as the only Ashkenazi of a group of people of almost all North African ancestry, as well as the British at the time, I was still a bit out of fashion. I don't care. I'm sure I will adapt soon. I am where I want.

When you take a terrorist as a hostage and attack the target, you must do it like a thunder. This is the whole content of hostage rescue. Give the terrorists a moment and they can start killing all hostages. If terrorists possess improvised explosive devices, they can immediately kill or injure almost everyone on the scene. You will use Ruth, cover, darkness (if any), and every trick you can think of to get the attacker as close to the target as possible without being seen, and try to get as many snipers as possible to see By the time the terrorists-all of these, the moment the commander issues the order, the terrorists have absolutely zero chance of reaction. Failure to do so does not necessarily mean that the mission will be a disaster. Sometimes, terrorists may be confused or lack determination, or they may decide to try to shoot at the attacking agent instead of the hostage. But the faster the HRU can participate and eliminate them, the greater the chance of a successful evacuation.

This is difficult to do. A country must assign the best personnel to perform these tasks. Commanders and planners must be imaginative and experienced. The sniper must be able to hit small targets in any range, usually from an undesirable position. The attacker must move lightning fast like a monkey, and must be able to distinguish terrorists from hostages at a glance. They must be able to shoot well so that they can hit terrorists who use hostages as shields, but not hostages. The best equipment must be obtained, and personnel need to master all these equipment. HRU must have superb support staff: engineers, dog managers with dogs, and a dozen experts in different fields. HRU needs to train on many different types of vehicles and buildings, which may become targets for terrorist hostages: schools, airplanes, buses, banks, apartments, public buildings, libraries, supermarkets, private houses Cars-the list is almost endless.

All members of

A former soldier, at least one command course and some command experience. At that time, most of the applicants came from the infantry battalion, a few came from more professional units, such as

Either

(Respectively

As well as Recce of the Parachute Brigade), they received extensive hostage rescue training. There are fewer numbers from non-infantry units. Avshi Peled, the commander of the first unit, served as an officer in the armored army. Russian immigrant Igor P. (Igor P.) During my tenure, I became a truly outstanding talent

In action, he has not even been a combat soldier. During my admission in 1986, more than one hundred people started the selection process, which took several days. The purpose of selection is to broadly challenge a person's physical strength and endurance, and reveal his fighting instincts and his ability to master the operational skills to be learned, but it is mainly to explore the motivation and willingness to win the job applicant. In the end, less than a quarter of people passed the selection course. At the end of the course, there were about twelve people. That is an attrition rate of about ninety percent.

The ruthless selection process and the process that followed it proved that the operators were fully professional and highly dedicated. We know that people's lives depend on us honing our skills to the best level, and we strive to do our best. Many of me, including myself, did not participate in the Israel Defense Forces in the Lebanon War, nor did they have any war experience, but at least during the post-war occupation, due to some small contacts in Lebanon, our taste for fighting was weak. And we are

In various situations. Only one of us, the new Attorney General, Chief Superintendent Alik Ron, has actually participated in the actual hostage rescue against terrorists. He worked in Entebbe with

. Since he is our CO

Go kick the windows and shoot terrorists on this particular day. Having said that, he is not an armchair leader, at least during his tenure

CO, he himself killed a terrorist in a gun battle. With an enviable appearance and always speaking softly, he has gained universal respect.

When we lay in the wet sand to make ourselves unobtrusive, senior officials had arrived at the scene. The Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Dan Shomron and his deputy Major General Ehud Barak and Major General Yitzhak Modchay, the head of the Southern Command, were also there. I remember being told later that the operational command to unfold the incident was given to Barak, even though I read somewhere that Mordecai was actually commanding. No matter who it is, they are happy to hand over the removal right

. As it is,

The person in the Sea Stallion helicopter I found during the trip had landed some distance, either because of a mistake, or because the pilot shouldn't have his heavy helicopter landed near such an open hostage residence. In either case, they spent some time to cover the distance to the scene with all their equipment kits, and when they approached, we had already deployed. A few years later, when I was studying in university, I met a classmate

Officer, on the ground with the command at the junction of Aru, he told me his opinion is

It is an advanced force, so it is expected to deploy and take over the rescue as it did in Deir el-Balah four years ago. But they never got close. From where I lay behind the rock, I have never seen any one. There is no time until now, the situation is beginning to deteriorate. The terrorist executed one of the hostages.

While we are trying to remain vigilant, the police negotiating team has been talking to terrorists through megaphones. They drove to the back of the bus somewhere on my left, but I couldn't see them. Their job is to try to calm the terrorists, maybe, maybe to persuade them to surrender. While our commandos are ready, they should keep the terrorists busy. I don't know if this is related to negotiation, or maybe it is related to others, but at some point, you may hear terrorists becoming more and more irritable. I don't understand what happened, it's all in Arabic, but they are obviously angry. Then they made Victor Ram stand up and shot him.

We heard a raging fire from where we lay. When this happens, your first instinct is to use the IA emergency plan to get up and start offensive. However, we already know that the execution of a hostage by terrorists to show that they are doing business is not necessarily considered a sufficient excuse to activate IA. But this did change the situation. Will not surrender. We were just sitting tight, waiting for the assault order, and now we know this will happen soon.

So far, two members of my front door team, Menash, and a soldier of Unit 2, Ronen Y., have been able to pass by me and reach the rock at the cutting edge. I cannot leave the rocks and move forward with them without being exposed. Unless I can climb straight back from the rock and find another route to take me to the edge of the cut, I will lose my leadership position and my role as a goalkeeper will disappear. But this kind of action will take too long. Assault orders are imminent, and going backwards is not an option. it is good. The number three on the door is fine. The backdoor team is nearby. There are Itzik and Rafi and Yaakov BG. We all know what to do. I drew the stun grenades and made sure my Browning was ready. Anytime now, we will go.

Another fire broke out on the bus. Is this another execution? careless? Did they fire at any of us? we do not know. But we know that it is. The order will appear at any time.

Then Yaakov turned to the three of us, grinned behind those stupid beards, and said, the voice was enough for us to hear:

"

The motto of Unit 3.

Although we are well-trained professionals, the tension is obvious, and Yakov read the perfect moment.

! We choked with giggles, and I suddenly felt calm and full of confidence. I know, I just know that we will succeed.

Suddenly, Rafi on the radio called out the code. assault! The thought is over. Instinct and training prevail. I don't even remember the sniper volley that I even heard at that moment. I jump up and run like everyone else, with only one thing in my mind-my task. speed! boarding. Go to the front door. Stand up the stairs and be the third person.

When I was running, I grabbed my grenade and threw it at the front door of the bus, but when it went out, I didn't really notice – I just reached the side of the road, hell! The slope was steep and tall, but I focused on it anyway, and then climbed down. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a surgical knee fall down and aimed his Uzi at the public. Car, but I don’t see any clear goals myself. At these moments, there are many shots, many shots, but no progress.

Menash and Ronen Y. have gone through the front door and inside-no tripwires-and it seems that Menash is shooting something with his Uzi pistol, I followed them up the small stairs, raised my position and pointed at mine Browning in the classic way of standing with both hands on the bus, but everything is almost over. A terrorist was lying on the back seat of a bus, and a police officer N. pierced through the rearmost window of the bus when he was held up by one of his men. At the same time, two other operators installed an assault ladder beside the farthest window on the other side of the bus. The two men and N. fired many shots at the terrorist and killed him. Get closer to me and walk towards the center of the bus through the back door. Other agents are shooting at the supine bodies of two other terrorists. The initial sniper volley shot down these two. Three snipers were in front of the bus. There was also a sniper from the First Cavalry. They fired immediately after receiving the order. The two terrorists did not know what attacked them. Then, Menash shot them as soon as he entered the field. Then, the backdoor team determined. The whole thing

When the shooting stopped, the next moment seemed chaotic as we tried to remove all hostages from the bus. There is still the possibility of booby traps, so some guys try to bring women out of the windows. I put a leather case on Browning and got out of the car to help. I found myself holding one of the hostages, a woman in a turquoise sweater. Our job was to take the hostage away from there, so I took her to the command team. When we ran, she turned to me and said, "You know, I have a son

trip. "I am here, everyone is excited, sweating profusely, sweating profusely with adrenaline, there is a woman who has just experienced the most terrible experience of her life, she chats calmly like a line in a supermarket! That too! That’s cool. Then, I met Udi, a psychologist from the engineer. I thought this lady might need a psychologist. Maybe he was not a clinical psychologist, but I was busy picking up at that time. I Hand the woman to me, and then I ran back to the bus.

Murdoch and other engineers quickly confirmed that there were no explosives or booby traps. I see

(MDA) team, two of which are responsible for casualties. A team is trying to resurrect a woman with a gurney, but this does not look good. Then some guys pulled the terrorist's body from the bus. They were wearing T-shirts with the words "Palestine" on the front. Murdoch possesses weapons. The terrorists in the back row are armed with Karl Gustav submachine guns. The other two have Kalashnikov. They must be bothering one of them, because when we found it, it was demolished. We made our weapons safe and collected tool kits.

So far, people have not come from

Flocked, some were taking on legal tasks, and others just for making things funny. It's time for us to disappear. The rescue is over.

I can't remember after that. I remember Itzik P. approached me when he returned to our van, grinning from ear to ear, and then we shook hands. In the next moment, I realized that my body had received various blows and scratches from crawling, running, and crazy collisions, so I didn't even think that I leaned over and checked my limbs with both hands for injuries. When I saw Itzik doing the same thing, I burst out laughing! You can go through all of this, and because of the adrenaline, you might be shot somewhere without even noticing. Again, no one in the commando team was injured.

The second thing I remember was the initial report at the community center in Beersheva. We sat in a tipping seat in a large auditorium, and each agent in the attack recorded his views and actions, and then the commander's turn was theirs. We learned that at the moment Alik gave the order, the terrorist at the back of the bus was well seen by at least two snipers, who suddenly lay down and disappeared. Therefore, in the event of an attack, only four snipers opened fire on the two terrorists in the middle of the bus. We further learned that the two injured women and the women I have seen treated by MDA military doctors have died. It seems that when Victor Ram was shot, one of them named Rina Shiratzky was shot, and despite the injuries, she just sat and remained silent.

At the time, my impression was that we didn’t really know the cause of the second fire we heard, nor how the other deceased Miriam Ben Yell was injured. But then one of the other hostages, Rachel Matsa, told the media that Ben Yair had also been deliberately shot by terrorists, which explained the second explosion. Rachel Matsa himself was shot dead. During the attack, she might have been hit by one of our stray bullets. There are many claims that eight hostages were injured. This is rubbish. A total of eight hostages survived. The person I took from the bus was definitely not injured. I think some of the others may have been scratched by broken glass, but as far as I know, only Rachel Matsa was shot. Even though these three deaths were caused before our attack, but we are

Knowing that three good people, the child's parents, have lost their lives, which made him successfully step down for the first time.

I was engaged at the time and my fiancé, Elaine, was on the bus in Jerusalem. The news came through the radio. The announcer summarized the terrorist attack and reported that the security forces stormed into the bus and rescued the hostages. Elaine knew it must be us, so she jumped out of the car to find the public phone. Since the news came out, the office of the department has been overwhelmed by such calls, and their answer has been well practiced: "Don't worry, he is fine." At that time, Elaine was greatly relieved. One day passed, everyone was talking about rescue, and she was very proud. If accepted

Strong enough for the applicant, and then

It may be more difficult for those wives and girlfriends who have to adapt to their disappearance, or when those buzzers sound, they suddenly do all kinds of dangerous nonsense. In these many crises, the wife and girlfriend supported each other and kept in touch, but this is always a kind of pressure. The unit tried its best to accommodate them. Wives and girlfriends attended all gatherings. Married men who were on standby and had to stay on the base on weekends could invite their wives and children (if any) to accompany them on their base. The department made everyone welcome.

After the report, we drove back to the base, and the members of Unit 3 went home as originally planned. That night, Yilian and I went out for dinner with one of her friends as planned. life goes on. I went home very early and saw the rescue report on the TV news. They interviewed Alik with their backs to the camera. I know. That's for security reasons, but I think it's a damn good thing. If they show his face, people will think we are stupid. No one would believe that the rest of us are ugly guys.

too.

Ugly guy, yes.

It is composed of young people from all over Israel and various fields. What makes us a unit is our common desire to be the vanguard of the Israeli army and go all out and go all out in the seemingly endless fight against terrorism. Some people stay longer, while others spend less time. But when we were there, our dedication was never questioned.

Nowadays

Better than ever. Over the years, its methods and equipment have continued to develop, and its growing reputation has attracted more candidates than today. Mother bus rescue is

It happened in Israel. There may be many reasons, but there must be a reason that must exist like

with

Just like they did on March 7, 1988.

There were no heroes that day. Only when things go wrong will you get a hero, and someone must step up their efforts to save their day. But things are going well. Clever drills, creative plans, and months and months of training and rehearsals completed the work quickly.

That is our job-work. We are just a bunch of ordinary guys. Of course, we passed the crazy selection and training plan, but each of us still has his love and hatred, dreams and fears. It is this kind of work, coupled with the contingency of the situation and the urgency of necessity, that make those fairly ordinary people do extraordinary things.

[1] First name

Is the acronym-ימ". The full name of the unit is official

, This is the special counter-terrorism unit. But the name has no initials! Even if I serve in the department, no one is really sure about the actual meaning of the acronym, although the most commonly accepted version is

-Police Special Unit-not very descriptive.

[2] This article is not history. It is not based on academic research. This is a personal memoir. It is based on my memory of a dramatic event that happened thirty years ago. I hope it will be used to contribute to any scholarship related to:

The rescue is usually dedicated. Although there are errors everywhere and other participants may have different memories of things, I will say this: I have not tried to modify my role in any way. I am a professional and I strive as a member of a professional team. It is the team that completed the work and achieved results.

[3] I usually use British military and police terms and terms equivalent to British military rank. I adopted the British Special Forces Convention and only used the term "force" to describe

The basic business department at that time, in Hebrew is

. Individuals serving in Yamam are part of the border guard, which is a branch of the Israeli police. In Hebrew, they are called

("Police") or

("Warrior" or "Warrior"). In English, "warrior" and "warrior" are not terms suitable for the context. The word "police" seems too mediocre to describe the members of it.

, Considering what he usually does. I choose to use the word "United States"-"action" for individuals in the Special Operations Department.

[4] I only use their full names when I know that the officers and agents participating in the mother bus rescue activities are in the public domain. Otherwise, I will either use the name, the abbreviation, or both. No matter whether the individual is alive or dead, I follow this rule. Our identities were protected at the time, and this is not where I decided to reveal anyone.

[5] Many accounts say that there are only four IDF personnel on the car. However, the officer conducted a television interview on the incident on the Israeli Channel 2 network. He said that he was driving with two other officers and two cadets. You can see this interview

.

[6] In some places, I have read some claims that terrorists targeted their passengers in advance due to the sensitive nature of their passengers. I don't think these claims make any sense. The development of the situation seems to indicate that the terrorists happened on the bus accidentally.

[7] The reason why we even have full-size Uzis is that Mini-Uzis' latest production runs are flawed. The hinge of the fold may be slightly unlocked during shooting. This defect did not exist in the early production run. IMI will collect all affected weapons and repair them. I think I can shoot even with this flaw, but others are not so sure.

[8] Every operator has a dizzying array of weapons and equipment. For example, I have a closed bolt, semi-automatic Uzi, with a threaded barrel, and equipped with a large suppressor, plus subsonic ammunition to make it quieter. In a separate box, I have a 20-inch M16A1 barrel with an M203 grenade launcher. Other agents have a Uzi pistol with a folding butt, a Beretta .22s with a large silencer or a Remington 870 shotgun. Snipers have their professional rifles: Galil sniper rifle or Steyr-Mannlicher SSG-69, both within 7.62 mm.

[9] I read in an account somewhere that Alik was one of the first people to get on the bus during the delisting period. Although that is of course his style, it is not his job. As a commander, it is up to him to provide the brain, make plans and give orders. Performing these tasks is our burden. I can't say categorically that he was not the first person to crash into the bus, but I don't remember mentioning him in any reports.

[10] In many accounts, you can see that it took 30-40 seconds. This is not true. About twelve seconds after the attack order was issued, the shooting was over, and it took a few minutes for everyone to get out of the car.

[11] Some people may cite the rescue of Nachshon Wachsman in 1997 as the last hostage rescue, but since the terrorists went into hiding instead of deliberately besieging, I think this kidnapping is not just a hostage.

[12] Although there were many dramatic moments in the Mother Bus incident that involved the individuals involved, it could not compete with the Entebbe hostage crisis

drama. After playing for a few days, Entebbe took control of the world. In view of the outstanding performance of Idi Amin, the release of the tensions of non-Israeli hostages, the pressure on the government to negotiate, the bold decision to rescue more than two thousand miles away from home was a successful rescue operation and one of them The death of this leader, not surprisingly, Entebbe has been the subject of books, documentaries and no less than four full-length films. From the beginning to the end, the mother bus incident lasted several hours, and the actual battle took about twelve seconds. By the time the public heard it, the matter was over. No one will make any feature films about Mother Bus Rescue. Nevertheless, this is a historic event. I tried to recap these events as much as possible through two main sources, namely, what I saw myself and what I was told at the time. If there are any errors in the narrative, the responsibility lies with me.

—

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