Israeli commando operations in Lebanon: A history of infiltration and abduction missions

Report by Wissam Nasrallah, English adaptation by Yasmine Jaroudi

Israeli commando units are elite military forces trained to carry out the most dangerous and complex operations, including infiltration, assassination, intelligence gathering, and abduction. 

Lebanon has been a significant theater for Israeli infiltration missions, with several notable operations outlined below.

On the night of Tuesday, April 10, 1973, a joint force from the elite Israeli units Sayeret Matkal and Shayetet 13 infiltrated the quiet streets of Verdun, Beirut. 

Their objective was to assassinate three leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO): the organization's spokesperson, Kamel Nasser; responsible for operations, Kamal Adwan; and a prominent Palestinian figure, Mohammed Youssef Najjar. 

The Israeli team swiftly advanced toward the residences of the targeted leaders, executed the operation with remarkable speed, and then retreated by sea.
 
Fifteen kilometers from the southern Lebanese border, a group of soldiers from the elite paratroopers brigade and the Givati Brigade descended from Israeli helicopters in the village of Jibchit on the night of July 28, 1989. 

Their mission was to abduct Sheikh Abdel Karim Obeid, a Hezbollah leader. The commandos stormed Obeid's home and successfully kidnapped him along with two civilian companions.

In May 1994, a Sayeret Matkal unit conducted an airborne assault in the town of Qsarnaba in the Bekaa Valley to gather information about Israeli pilot Ron Arad, whose plane was shot down in Lebanon in the 1980s. They abducted Hezbollah official Mustafa Dirani, who was later released in January 2004 as part of a prisoner exchange deal between Hezbollah and Israel. 

The successes experienced by the commandos were challenged on September 5, 1997, when a Hezbollah ambush occurred in the town of Ansariyeh. 

After a commando unit landed on the beach and moved toward the surrounding woods after midnight, they were surrounded by Hezbollah fighters who opened fire and detonated explosive devices, resulting in the deaths of 12 Israeli soldiers and injuries to others. The Israeli Air Force later intervened to evacuate the casualties.

During the July 2006 War, two notable Israeli operations were carried out in Lebanon. One was an incursion by a Sayeret Matkal unit near Dar Al Hekme Hospital in Baalbek, targeting senior Hezbollah leaders, as claimed by Israel. 

However, the mission led to clashes between the Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters, accompanied by airstrikes that killed 11 civilians and the abduction of three others. 

In addition, 11 days before the war's conclusion, another Israeli operation occurred in Tyre aimed at abducting a Hezbollah official, which also failed as Hezbollah successfully countered the attack, resulting in the death of one Israeli soldier.

Israeli commando units have not confined their operations to Lebanon; they have also conducted missions in other countries. 

In 2010, an Israeli Mossad team assassinated senior Hamas military commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in his hotel room in Dubai. 

The operation was complex, involving the use of forged names and passports. Al-Mabhouh was injected with a sedative before being suffocated.