Yamam

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Yamam symbol

The Yamam (Hebrew: ימ"מ‎), is the acronym for Special Police Unit (יחידת משטרה מיוחדת, Yeḥidat Mishtara Meyuḥedet), Israel's elite civilian counter-terrorism unit. The Yamam is capable of both hostage-rescue operations and offensive take-over raids against targets in civilian areas. Besides military duties, it also performs SWAT duties and undercover police work.

[edit] Name and organization

Yamam stands for Special Police Unit. In Israel it is also called "The Unit for Counter-Terror Warfare" (היחידה ללוחמה בטרור). The Yamam answers to the Ministry of Defense central command and belongs to the civilian Israel Police forces on paper, rather than the military, but is actually independent in many ways. Its operators and officers are professional policemen on payroll, always with infantry experience from their military service within the Israel Defense Forces. Yamam recruits its members exclusively from Israeli units.

cum ere man Yamam is an integral part of the Israeli Border Guard (Magav) for the purpose of pay checks and budget only. The name being the acronym for the unit's Hebrew name: Yechida Mishtartit Meyuchedet (=Special Police Unit.) The unit is primarily responsible for civilian hostage rescue within Israel's borders, but from about the mid-1990s it has been used for tasks such as arresting police suspects who have barricaded themselves in and required specialized extraction methods, and in counter-terror operations within the Arab West Bank and Gaza. The Yamam are schooled in basic Arabic and dress to assimilate within the Arab population to avoid detection similar to Duvdevan, in order to carry out raids to arrest those suspected of conducting terrorist activities within the Israeli homeland.

Unit Yamam is about 200 members strong and comprises a headquarters element, an intelligence section and a small team responsible for the development of new operational techniques and testing new equipment. These central elements apart, the bulk of the unit is divided into a number of sections, each consisting of five teams, each containing operators with a particular specialization, so that the section includes within its numbers all the elements needed for a successful operation: roping team, entry team, medic team, sniping team, dog team, EOD team (demolition and bomb disposal). Thus, whereas an IDF special forces operation needs to assemble elements from different specialist units, in Yamam, they are all permanently part of the same unit, living, training and operating together.

Applicants for Yamam must be between 22 and 30 years of age and must have completed their three-year infantry service in the IDF with a level 7 of IDF training or higher, but no previous police experience is required. Unlike American SWAT teams, the YAMAM is a professional unit with only combat duties and no other police type work. The selection process includes a "hell week" said to be one of the hardest in the world. This level of difficulty is achieved because all the applicants are already seasoned combat soldiers, like the US Delta force.The skills they are looking for in every candidate are: intelligence, physical fitness, motivation, trustworthiness, accountability, maturity, stability, judgment, decisiveness, teamwork, influence, and communication. Training lasts 12 months and is carried out in the unit's own training center, although some use is made of the facilities at the IDF Counter Terror Warfare School (LOTAR, Unit 707.) The course is divided into an eight-month general CT training period at the end of which recruits are selected for their specialization and then concentrate for the remaining four months on that specialization. Upon graduation, individuals are posted to fill gaps in the sections. Yamam considers that it has several advantages over the IDF counter-terror units, first, because the men are more mature, most in their mid 30's and early 40's, and spend much longer in the unit than the equivalent military units, and, second, because the units contain a far broader range of ages and experience.

The Yamam is self-dependent, training its own operators in all fields, such as sniping, reconnaissance, dog operating, bomb disposal, etc. As a result, the Yamam has a rapid deployment time and high coordination between various squads (sniping squad, entry team, engagement force, etc.).

The Yamam's primary duties are:

Hostage rescue.
Offensive or preemptive operations.Direct action
SWAT duties - handling dangerous criminals. Arrests/Kidnaping
Undercover police operations.
VIP security.

Most of the Yamam's activity is classified, and published Yamam operations are often credited to other units. Nevertheless, the Yamam enjoys a high reputation among SF professionals and the Israeli public.

[edit] History

The Yamam was established after the Ma'alot massacre, where a failed operation by military special forces units ended with 21 children murdered before the hostage takers were killed. Since hostage rescue in friendly territory is different from that in hostile areas, it was decided to establish an elite civilian force, which develops and practices a special CQB (Close Quarters Battles) doctrine for "counter-terrorism" operations in friendly territory and hostage rescue. In late 1974, the Yamam was established and has since fallen under the direct jurisdiction of the Israel Border Police — the combat arm of the Israel Police.

[edit] Operational record 1974 - September 2000

The Yamam has carried out many paramilitary operations. Some of the missions known to the public prior to the al-Aqsa Intifada are listed below:

In March 1988, the Yamam was called into action after a group of three Palestinians hijacked a bus full of women returning from work at the Negev Nuclear Research Center near Dimona, in an incident known as the "Mothers Bus". The Yamam struck, killing all three hijackers, but not managing to prevent three Israeli passengers from being killed.
On March 3, 2000, the Yamam captured an armed group hidden in the Israeli-Arab town of Taibe with the aid of Sayeret Duvdevan and an IDF Caterpillar D9 bulldozer. In the end of the raid, one man was arrested and four were killed.[1] (password-restricted link)