"We worked in the dark. We were not allowed to turn on flashlights. Operations of all the protection forces were around us. Everything was very close. The air force, the tanks, the whistles, the firing of small arms. I don't know if they knew who we were and what our mission was, but the order that they were given was to enable us to do the work and to guard us. I personally did not see any terrorists, because I was focused on my work, but those were two hours working under fire."
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This is how Captain Eli, commander of a search unit in the south (the unit that evacuated the bodies of many of the October 7 Simchat Torah massacre victims in the area surrounding Gaza), describes one of the actions that he and his fellow soldiers were involved in at the beginning of the ground operation. A Givati armored personnel carrier was hit by Hamas fire and nine soldiers were killed. The search unit was called in to retrieve the bodies of the dead.
The "operations" that the officer is referring to is searching for and locating the remains of Israeli soldiers' bodies in enemy territory, and those who carry out this mission are the soldiers in the military search units – Yasar in military parlance – whose dramatic story is told here for the first time.
The ones who are bearing the vast majority of the burden in the current war are Yasar South, which is subordinate to the Southern Command, and reinforcement units from Yasar Golan and the 98th Division have currently been added. These soldiers, who so far have not spoken to the media, are the ones who found and rescued most of the murdered victims. At first, they operated in the area surrounding Gaza and now are busy within the fighting areas in Gaza itself. According to their records, there are more than 600 dead. Their work rate is very high and stands at about 30 searches per day, in comparison to 15 searches throughout Operation Protective Edge in 2014. Some of the cases are particularly difficult.
Video: The Hamas attack on Zikim Beach on Oct. 7, 2023 / Credit: Usage under Israeli Intellectual Property Law, Section 27a
There are five Yasar battalions in the IDF: Golan, Galil, Central, South, and General Staff. Another company, which is also the first in the IDF, is operated by the 98th Division. The Yasar soldiers are called into action in difficult cases where there is concern that the dead body is not intact, otherwise the Medical Corps are responsible to return it to the home front.
Rescuing bodies of fallen soldiers has been the Military Rabbinate's task ever since Rabbi Shlomo Goren undertook this himself during the War of Independence in 1948. However, the need to establish the search units arose after the armored personnel carrier disaster on the Philadelphi Route in May 2004, when thirteen soldiers were killed in an attack. Their friends were the ones who searched the sand to locate their remains that were scattered in the area.
The shock created by the photos led to the realization that earmarked search units had to be established, and they would handle difficult cases and bring them to a complete Jewish burial as much as possible. Another, and no less important, goal is to prevent the enemy from using these bodies to make demands, or as a bargaining chip in negotiations.
The Yasar soldiers include veterans of combat units, and the demand to serve in these units is high. A large number of the soldiers served in regular IDF service in the ultra-orthodox Nahal or Hesder yeshiva programs, but some were also veterans of patrol units and secular soldiers.
Yasar South, which has borne the main brunt of the current war, was ready on high alert and was given the assignment quite by chance. On that horrific morning, battalion commander Elyasaf and his company commanders were together on a joint vacation in Tiberias. "Within 12 hours of the outbreak of the war, we started working," the battalion commander recalls.
Their own course of action
Lieutenant Colonel Elyasaf: "We managed to get there quickly because we were all together. Already when the first news reports from the south came in at 7 a.m., I knocked on the doors of their hotel rooms. The families were quite taken by surprise, but we jumped into action and at 7:15 we sped south. At 14:00 we mobilized the battalion and opened the emergency warehouses. At 18:30 the first forces arrived at the Re'im camp and began to conduct searches.
"The second reason we were ready was that in the weeks before the war I insisted on a full regimental exercise, which was due to start on October 8. This was an exercise that has been postponed several times, and this time the ranks above me also wanted to postpone it. But I insisted. I cannot explain why, and despite many requests, I did not agree to another delay. We prepared for the exercise for two months, including the use of a large amount of equipment that was ready in the warehouses, combat soldiers had been placed, and all the details that would have been required if we were in a war were ready. This helped us a lot as soon as the war broke out."
Q; How come no one has heard about you until today despite being a combat unit that identifies bodies?
Captain Eli: "I don't want to get into comparisons with others. We have our own methods of operation. Every mission does just involve laying down on the ground and scanning it, but includes a very precise series of actions, according to an orderly procedure. We conduct a field analysis in advance, to understand what is required. If the operation is being conducted within a residential zone, we coordinate with the local security officer exactly which area he believes is necessary to search. Sometimes it is necessary to coordinate with operational forces. Based on these characteristics and others, we build the dedicated force for the mission. Before we set off, we have an organized series of commands. We did meet the ZAKA volunteers in action. They could only go to places where they could be secure, but unfortunately, there was enough work for everyone."
Q; When there is complete darkness and it is forbidden to turn on a light, as you described earlier, how can you carry out the search?
Captain Eli: "We have very organized combat procedures, and we know how to do the job. We use starlight, night vision devices and other techniques. I won't say that it is not scary to work under fire, but when you put us inside the war zone, you realize that this is a mission that no one else can perform. During your work, you are totally focused on what you are doing. We know that we are messengers of the Jewish People doing this holy work. Our responsibility is to be there for each and every dead soldier, and that is what we do. Sometimes the scenes are difficult, and it takes time to get over it. But our morale and the soldiers' morale are high, because we know that no one else would do this. We are the most professional force in the world, which knows how to reach any point, find anything, wherever it is, and bring it in, even under fire."
Accurate documentation
Elyasaf: "We are inside the brigade and close to its soldiers. When a soldier is injured, we are pushed in as quickly as possible. In 99% of the cases, it will only be after the actual fighting, because we do not put searching soldiers at risk, even though there are extraordinary cases. It has already happened that mortar bombs have fallen 20 meters (40 feet) from us. We also come back day after day to do additional searches and the enemy spots us, but that will not make us give up. We trained for it, and we have double strength, both mentally and operationally. In this regard, we are much more than ZAKA, because we are involved in a military mission. There is 150% effort in every ground cell for every casualty. The goal is to leave nothing behind."
Some of the unit's operations are prohibited for publication. Two weeks ago there was significant activity for 48 hours inside the Gaza Strip. Another operation was conducted in conjunction with the naval commando.
Lieutenant Colonel Elyasaf, company commanders Yair and Eli, and soldier Yitzhak are reluctant to go into detail even in matters that have not been defined as confidential. The sights they saw and the experiences they experienced, as the whole world already knows, are very difficult. They feel that it is wrong for IDF soldiers to enter into plastic descriptions, because that will convey a message of weakness to the public which will inevitably help the enemy. This is probably also the reason why they have not been interviewed until today and that even in the conversation with me, held last week at the Tze'elim IDF base, they spoke only in general terms.
Another unique feature of the Yasar activity is the precise documentation of the operations and findings, so that they can be used in the future also for the purpose of identifying the bodies, or to assist the activities of the IDF Unit for Locating Missing Persons, known as "Eitan." "The documentation of every meter of activity is conducted using maps and military cameras. We found it to be helpful. When we are concerned that there are missing persons, we work shoulder to shoulder with Eitan, and this has also happened during this war. But in regard to the precise method of work, we act as quickly as possible so that the family receives the information from a reliable source, and not from WhatsApp. This is one of our main mottos," says the battalion commander.
In the first two weeks of the war, most of their activity was focused around Gaza, but also in the many extended areas – areas to which the locals fled on the first day, and terrorists on the subsequent days. They removed more than 600 bodies, including most of those murdered at the party in Re'im. More bodies were discovered in the region when the IDF entered Gaza, and with the permission given to the battalion to carry out the search work close to the Gaza border, and then to the west of it, as the forces progressed.
Elyasaf: "The entire area where you can find bodies is huge. Some of them were impossible to reach at the beginning of the war. We are talking about tens of square kilometers, including areas that cross the border to the outskirts of Beit Hanun in Gaza. The area constantly grows as the fighting progresses. We have been in all the villages and in all open areas. We saw and dealt with all the horrors – women, old people, children. Everything. In the first week I did not eat and slept only 3-4 hours a night. Terrorists attacked us in Kisufim. We were attacked by drones in Holit and there were mortar bombs going over our heads in Nahal Oz."
Q: What do you think about when faced with these horrific sights?
Elyasaf: "It's like I'm on a trip to the former Nazi concentration camps in Poland. That history is repeating itself, but in a different way. Because this time I'm showing up for a Holocaust Remembrance Day, but in uniform and with a weapon and boots. I'm returning to Europe of 1939, when I am a battalion commander commanding over 300 combat soldiers, and I am not helpless."
Q: Tell me about one moment from the first days that you take with you.
Capt. Eli: "While conducting searches in Kisufim during the second week of the war, we were told that there is a terrorist in the village. In one second you go from search mode to combat mode, and realize that the task now is to defend ourselves. We are all veterans of combat units, and this is why we are in the Yasar. Being in the Yasar means both being a combat soldier and dealing mentally with everything you see. Although we saw things that were not part of our training, we know how to deal with them. We talk about it with the soldiers, and feel, in addition to the major disaster, that we are blessed to have been given this opportunity. It is an enormous privilege to be where we are, in time and place."
Elyasaf: "We were not recruited to engage in a battle of propaganda. We are not here for the world, but so that the State of Israel knows that there are hundreds of people who are doing everything possible to bring our boys and girls home. This is the reason I agreed to be interviewed, so that every father and mother in Israel would know that this is what we are doing here."
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