Dogs helping Israeli military in unprotected vehicles

The commander of the Israel Defense Forces Oketz (K-9) unit was one of many military officers who jumped into action before receiving official orders on Oct. 7 as Hamas terrorists breached the border, killing 1,400.

From his home in Rehovot, Lieut. Col. A., who could only be identified by his first initial for security reasons, immediately called his platoon commanders and ordered the entire unit to its parent base to get into combat gear. Commanders and soldiers with dogs sped southward in unprotected vehicles.

“We began to contact all the units that had rushed into the field in order to match them and the dogs with the troops – General Staff Sayeret Matkal commandos, Shaldag, naval commandos, Duvdevan, Maglan, Egoz, the anti-terror school, paratroop commandos, the southern counter-terrorism unit,” he said. “Even the special police, who had their own dogs, put in an exceptional request for help. Quite a few of their dogs had been hit.

“At 11 a.m. I contacted the Gaza division’s intelligence officer – he was dealing with his own pandemonium – and updated him about the order of forces that I still had, 80 or so troops in training, even though that’s not the way my unit is employed. We made a decision, not a trivial one but a necessary one,” he said.

A team from Oketz joined a Duvdevan unit to comb open territory in the Beersheva area.

One of the dogs discovered a terrorist who had set up an ambush for the force in a grove of bushes. The dog bit the terrorist, and the Duvdevan force arrested him. That terrorist was part of Hamas’ underground system, and gave important information while being interrogated, Lieut. Col. A. said.

A canine with Naval Commando 13 — Nero — was killed by terrorists lying in wait in a house.

”That’s how the men in the force realized that there were terrorists in the house, and human lives were saved,” he said. “The troops fired at the terrorists and … brought the house down on them. Lots of commanders from Naval Commando 13 contacted me and told me that the dog had saved their lives.”

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