General Background

On October 7, the people of Israel awoke to a new yet familiar reality. Hamas launched a surprise attack and managed to murder around 1,400 civilians — elderly, women, children, and infants — and abduct 253 people, both living and deceased, to Gaza.
As a result, various councils recognized the urgent need to establish units with rapid response capabilities, capable of entering combat in a short time and neutralizing threats in a professional and effective manner.

The brigade counter-terrorism (LOTAR) unit will be fully military in every respect and will strive for continuous improvement and the highest level of professional development.

Stages

• Fundraising for the establishment of the unit

• Recruiting consultants for the setup process — veterans of the Yamam and Arava LOTAR

• Defining the threats and operational environment of the unit

• Building a structured plan for establishing the unit and its operational method

• Conducting a survey and specification of combat equipment in relation to operational needs, followed by procurement

• Publishing a call for candidates and beginning the selection process

• Collecting resumes over about two to three weeks and analyzing and ranking them

• Conducting in-person interviews for all candidates who pass the initial screening and ranking results

• Holding a selection day to assess physical fitness, technical skills, and combat abilities, and ranking results

• Selecting the team to begin the formation training (goal: 1 out of 3)

• Coordinating a 4-week formation training at the Adam facility

• Coordinating two weeks of exercises in the operational sector

• Operational unit