Inside Lehava: Israel's Elite Fire and Rescue Special Operations Unit
Explore how Lehava, Israel's elite firefighting special rescue unit, handles extreme subterranean and flood missions, saving lives from deep wells and raging storm waters.
While most Israelis treat intermediate holiday periods as an opportunity for trips and family vacations, for the personnel of Lehava—the Israel Fire and Rescue Services' elite National Unit for Special Rescue Operations—it is a season fraught with danger. Amid grueling training in the Jerusalem hills, involving deep well rappelling and zero-visibility turbid water searches, unit commander Deputy Chief Firefighter Doron Almaliach highlights a concerning reality. Many hikers enter water sources, ancient cisterns, and rainwater-filled pools without grasping the lurking hazards.
Elite Training and Operations
Almaliach is often joked about by his peers as being "married to the unit," a small, tight-knit family of just 33 firefighters that maintains a rigorous and uncompromising recruitment threshold. The unit's operational capabilities include helicopter insertions, rappelling, murky-water diving, and advanced sonar use. These exact skills were deployed to locate the remains of Barak Tzach, who was tragically killed in a shark attack off the coast of Hadera. Another critical test came during the severe winter storm "Byron," which battered the southern coastal plain and nearly turned the moshav of Beit Shikma into a disaster zone.
"The real challenge is not just descending, but safely reaching the victim's location with medical equipment and extracting an injured person from the depths of a narrow well," explains Almaliach, detailing the intense physical toll of subterranean rescues.
Dramatic Rescues and International Missions
During the dramatic night of the storm, 17 residents trapped in vehicles and flooded homes suffered from severe hypothermia. Lehava fighters forged their way through roaring currents in pitch darkness to rescue them. In another harrowing incident last March at the Seven Mills Park, a 14-year-old boy found himself trapped on a rapidly shrinking patch of vegetation amid raging floodwaters. Lehava operatives crossed the violent currents using boats, ropes, and life vests, pulling him to safety just moments before the waters completely submerged his refuge. Beyond domestic operations, the unit's expertise extends globally. Collaborating closely with the IDF Home Front Command rescue unit and the aerial array, Lehava serves as a cornerstone of Israel's international humanitarian delegations, participating in complex rescue missions following major earthquakes in Tokyo and Colombia. Their vast experience has driven the development of new combat doctrines, including suspended-load extractions in cooperation with the Israel Police aerial unit, enabling rooftop evacuations from ruined structures even when stairwells have collapsed.
