The Hammer vehicle of Unit 6 commander, Lt. Col. S., emerges with a roar from Nahal Oz outpost, one of the bloodiest symbols of October 7. Beside him sits Captain N., one of the founders of Moshav Ratamim, who commands the classified unit’s mobility in reserves, affiliated with Maglan, deep in enemy territory.
Thirty seconds and we’re at the fence, the same fence the terrorists blew up on that black Saturday, on the way to the outpost. A place where dozens of soldiers were murdered. From here, the female lookouts were also dragged on their way to the Strip. We drive a few hundred meters and arrive at a relatively new outpost, at whose entrance hangs a sign reading “Magen Nahal Oz Outpost.” “Too bad we weren’t here then,” one of the fighters filters through the noise the powerful jeep generates. Five words with a world behind them.
Inside the outpost, several unit fighters sit in a caravan, focused on targets before them. The air conditioner rattles and cools them in the terrible July-August heat. “These are excellent conditions, usually we’re dug in for a week inside a bush,” smiles one of the soldiers. A powerful explosion shakes the outpost after a fighter jet drops ordnance on a house.
Israeli soldiers work near tanks in a gathering point near the border with the Gaza Strip on August 13, 2025 in Southern Israel, Israel (Photo: Amir Levy/Getty Images) Getty Images
A fighter in half-uniform, B., wearing a bucket hat on his head, gazes at the smoke enveloping the building remains in the heart of what was once part of Sajaiya. No one goes outside. Beside him, another fighter looks into a house window, waiting for another elimination target to show his face. On the wall, a paper with several names. “Eliminated,” written large next to one of them. “The others’ time will come too,” says the fighter with the hat.
Several reservists huddle nearby around a small screen. Excitement and alertness are evident on their faces. For an hour, they’ve been tracking a tent three kilometers west, where a terrorist from the Sajaiya battalion hides among women and children. Now it appears the target is going to sleep, and the gathering around him disperses.
Suddenly – boom. A large explosion appears on the screen. We all jump from our places and shout “Yes!” “We waited for there to be as few casualties as possible besides the target,” explains one of the fighters, about why the drone hovering over the tent for so long fired a missile only now, even though its battery was almost empty. Gazans rush to approach the location. One of them, an elderly man, runs to the destroyed tent and immediately returns to distance the children from the place. His hands, holding his head in panic, say everything. The target was eliminated.
Unit 6, where the reserve fighters I meet here serve, is a Maglan veterans’ classified unit in Division 98. Its full name, Battalion 6212, is less familiar. This is a unit holding expertise no one else in the IDF has. For 20 years, it operated in the shadows, and now it can be exposed to the world. Meet the terrorist hunters.
“In-house” capabilities
The Maglan unit was established in the mid-1980s for a unique purpose – specializing in destroying high-quality targets deep in the battlefield and creating military intelligence through specialized and advanced combat means. A full commando unit. The verse from Isaiah can well summarize its working method over the past 39 years: “In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”
Unit 6, affiliated with it, has existed for approximately 20 years. In recent years, since Maglan became a raiding unit, the “exposure-attack” mission has been transferred to it. In the war, its capabilities became critical, and it became one of the most sought-after in the IDF. Its fighters equipped themselves with advanced drones and “Steel Sting” missiles manufactured by Elbit – exceptionally accurate missiles capable of hitting targets from particularly long distances.
The unit consists of eight teams total, divided into an exposure platoon and an attack platoon. Unlike most IDF forces, which know how to operate fire through the air force or artillery, Unit 6 has “in-house” capabilities – or, as its commanders define it, “autonomous.”
Israeli soldiers walk towards the northern Gaza Strip as seen from the Israeli border with Gaza, Monday, Jan. 12, 2009 (Photo: AP/IDF, Neil Cohen, HO) AP
“Exposure-attack” is a sophisticated commando method. Forces enter the space and blend into it through ambushes, until they identify the enemy and eliminate them. “We know how to study the terrain, identify terrorists blending into the population, isolate them and attack them,” explains Captain A., exposure platoon commander.
“Our ability to connect identification with attack, close a circle quickly, and eliminate terrorists is unique. Sometimes we work through remotely piloted aircraft like Zik, but in contexts of incrimination and maneuvering capabilities, the drone is much better. Our advantage also stems from the possibility of using all tools to catch targets.”
They identify the target and eliminate it, whether through air force Zik-type aircraft or themselves, without external involvement. The advantage of direct elimination is that there’s no need to obtain approvals or wait in line for aircraft on another mission at the same time – at the push of a button, they eliminate the threat.
I go outside and turn to a makeshift corner set up beside the caravan. Some sofas, half-broken chairs, and a well-used grill. Captain N. is a perfect host in clearly uncomfortable conditions, treating me to a cold Pepsi, peanuts from a combat ration, and fake Bamba promised to taste better than the original. It’s true.
Outside the trailer stand two “Steel Sting” shells ready for firing when needed, connected to well-equipped Defender vehicles. Under a shade cloth stands one of the fighters, dressed in uniform pants and a black tank top, with a backgammon board beside him. He reminds me a bit of Yosifon from “Givat Halfon,” but when I tell him this, he admits he hasn’t seen the movie. Despite the reservist image, the fighters here have no time for trivialities like shakshuka affairs.
One of the unit’s young fighters, Staff Sergeant N., smiles at me, quality ski goggles on his head. “Is that a donation?” I ask, and he smiles, answering that it’s the result of cooperation with a ski company abroad, in exchange for modeling. He’s not alone. Most of the unit’s fighters, or at least those we encountered, could be immediately integrated into a modeling campaign. They’ve been over 300 days in reserves since the war began, and if they continued carving X’s on the rifle for every terrorist they eliminated, the space on the weapon would have run out long ago.
Israeli soldiers walk towards the northern Gaza Strip as seen from the Israeli border with Gaza, Monday, Jan. 12, 2009 (Photo: AP/IDF, Neil Cohen, HO) AP
“Not knocks from the neighbors”
The unit’s commander in recent months has been Lieutenant Colonel S. He grew up in Maglan and entered the war as the deputy unit commander in reserve. As a civilian, he manages a public transportation projects department at the Transportation Ministry, but for two years, he hasn’t visited there, he says, due to the enormous number of reserve days he’s performed. He’s 40, father of four, and lives in Tzur Hadassah. And like every fighter serving since October 7, that’s where his story begins, too.
“At 6:30 a.m., I woke up and heard small explosions,” he reconstructs. “I told my wife Liat, ‘Do you hear that? I think it’s knocks from the neighbors.’ And she answered, ‘No, I think it’s something in the south.’ Since our entire operational plan was for the north, no one talked about Gaza, I assumed there was another round in the south and went to synagogue.”
Around 8:00 a.m., alarms began in Tzur Hadassah, and S. returned home. One of the neighbors said he heard rumors about something big happening in the south. S. decided to turn on his phone – and his eyes darkened. In a phone call, the unit commander told him, “There’s a major event,” and a unit team commander, who lives in Be’eri, called and said, “You must bring an army here.”
“I understand you’re from the Gaza periphery,” I turn to Captain A. (32), exposure platoon commander, sitting quietly beside us. He smiles and shares that indeed, he lives in Zikim. “I married Tal, my wife, in September 2023, at the kibbutz, with a view of Gaza.”
In 2020, after eight years of service in Maglan, he was discharged and began studying mechanical engineering. Soon, he’s expected to complete his degree, during the war, in which he also returned to regular service. On October 7, he was at the kibbutz, but while his brother carried a weapon as a unit officer, he was forced to watch from the side as fighters defended his residential community. “It was very frustrating,” he admits. “Meanwhile, they mobilized the unit, but I couldn’t get to the emergency warehouse because of the battles. Eventually, I asked them to bring me the weapon and equipment to the periphery, and I managed to join them only in the evening.”
While A. was stuck in the besieged kibbutz, the fighters quickly organized to leave for the Gaza periphery, but then a problem arose. “It was already 10:30 in the morning, but we had no vehicles, because some of our vehicles recently went out of service,” says Lt. Col. S.
Captain N. had an exceptional solution that wouldn’t have worked on any day other than October 7. “I understood we had to get down to the periphery, but it wasn’t possible to arrive in private vehicles due to fear of two-way fire. I called a friend, and he arranged buses from a company owned by a Bedouin guy. I paid 15,000 shekels from my own pocket. Only recently, more than a year and a half after October 7, the money was returned to us.”
The reserve fighters reached the Gaza periphery and operated in Nir Oz, Magen, and Sderot. For several weeks, they worked in the periphery and then were rushed north, facing Hezbollah, to do what they do best – hunt terrorists trying to launch missiles and rockets toward the State of Israel.
“It wasn’t easy being in the north while the main fighting was in Gaza, but we were very effective,” says Lt. Col. S. “Every day there was an elimination of a cell, and our activity did the job. We saw the terrorists retreating from the north and understood it was because of our work.”
The unit’s field activity continued also in the Lebanon maneuver, in November 2024, when they also lost the only fighter killed in combat since its establishment, team sergeant – Staff Sergeant (res.) Eitan Ben Ami. “We passed by a half-destroyed structure we’d walked by quite a few times to avoid being exposed to the enemy, and then suddenly everything collapsed,” recounts Staff Sergeant N. “It happened within seconds. Several other guys and I were ahead, and so we managed to run from the collapse, but two fighters remained under the rubble. The fighters shouted ‘Iron numbers report!’ to check if everyone was present, but no one answered, because numbers 1 and 2 were buried under the rubble. I shouted, ‘No iron numbers! No iron numbers!’ I immediately understood what happened.”
Israeli soldiers inside a military aircraft flying over the Gaza Strip to airdrop humanitarian aid (Photo: Israeli Defense Forces / AFP) AFP
One of the fighters was extracted from the rubble and evacuated to the hospital. Eitan Ben Ami was extracted after several hours and fell during this activity. Eitan was discharged in April 2024, and from that day, his vest was ready in the war room. When he flew to Thailand, he said it was hard for him there because the fighting had not yet ended. “Before they entered fighting in Lebanon, Eitan told us, ‘We have the experience, we’re the most ready, most suitable. It’s my time now, and this is what needs to be done,'” remembers his mother, Tzili Ben Ami.
“It was important to him to mobilize for reserves, to continue taking part in the war. They fought from October 7 in the periphery, north, Gaza, and Lebanon, and even after they were discharged, it was important to him to remain in the reserves and continue fighting. He saw what was happening in the country and felt he could contribute and help.”
Eitan’s family says he loved life, always had a smile on his face, and was the heart of the team, friends, and his family. Everywhere he went, he was a good and loyal friend, a loving partner, and a person who was both funny and serious, yet responsible. He knew how to see the other and radiated security, light, and love to those around him. Values, giving, friendship, and love of country were very important to him.
100 percent mobilization
For the past three months, the unit has been in Gaza, part inside the Strip and part near the border. Conditions may be better than under a tree in Lebanon, but the mission is no less challenging. Some fighters have close connections to the periphery and feel the importance of activity in the Strip firsthand. For them, it’s not dawdling, but necessary work so residents can return to live there.
Captain N. is the secretary of Kibbutz Sufa. He watched the battle investigation as it happened on October 7. Captain A. also lives nearby. Every time he passes by Nahal Oz outpost and arrives at Magen Nahal Oz outpost, he understands the mission’s importance.
Around the position established less than two years ago – a lesson from October 7 – inscriptions were engraved. Among them, alongside wordplay and songs, are also moving messages. In a large square, names of fallen were written, including Dekel Soysa, Amishar Ben David, Chen Buchris, and Gal Eisenkot, who became familiar to every Israeli. Beside them, an anonymous soldier wrote a message to hostages still held by Hamas: “Omri, Gal,i and Ziv, we haven’t forgotten you! You’re always on our minds.”
“The view at my wedding isn’t the same view, and this is proof we’re doing everything needed so we can return to live here, build our home,” he says. “I live in the place where everything happened, pass through Route 10 and all the points where the atrocities occurred, and there’s always a heavy feeling that this thing happened. That’s why we’re here – so it will never happen again.”
Every journalist dreams of being a “fly on the wall” in this type of unit’s activity, but the fate of flies stuck to yellow traps throughout the combat trailer doesn’t inspire envy. A creaking fan against the heavy heat is perfect dissonance to the sophisticated screens on the table.
I leave the trailer, helmet on my head, and go up to the northern position, where a fighter stands. Besides quality missions, there’s also a need for technical missions, including defending the outpost. He apologizes for a moment, shares that his wife is near the end of pregnancy, and shares that a few weeks ago he participated in a doctor’s examination – she was there physically and he was in Gaza. “People do everything they can to combine civilian life with the army,” he says. “See that tent below? It’s actually a university study room. People finish missions and complete their degree.”
Captain Y. greets us as we return to the air conditioning. He’s a student and simultaneously works at the Tkuma Administration, working to rehabilitate the Gaza periphery. His apartment in Ramat Gan, he doesn’t really manage to visit, considering he’s approaching 400 cumulative reserve days.
“One of the things that distinguishes us is the autonomous capability,” he explains. “Many brigades have drones and the ability to operate fire, but what’s special about us is that we can create fire ourselves. If we have a team that identified a target, it can speak directly with us, without depending on the air force or tanks. We know how to close a fire circle very quickly.”
The unit is responsible for eliminating 150 terrorists since entering Gaza, some with much blood on their hands. And unlike other units operating fire from afar, here it’s micro-elimination, with certain identification. “A few weeks ago, we received precise intelligence about terrorists from October 7, including one responsible for murdering Dekel Soysa, who served in Maglan,” shares Captain Y. “We discovered which house they were in and even which room – and eliminated them.”
“In another case, also occurring a few weeks ago, we tracked a Hamas platoon commander who was at Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, and tried to eliminate him for three months. At the last moment, the air force told us there was a problem executing the fire because of the building’s angle. We told them again and again that we could execute the fire, but they insisted. We told them we understand it’s a valuable target, and if we miss – who knows when we’ll catch him, if at all.”
“Eventually, we executed the fire, and after a few hours, received confirmation he was eliminated. I have a friend living in Be’eri, and I’m waiting to meet him face to face and tell him – we killed the cursed terrorist who infiltrated your kibbutz.”
Unit 6 is an integral part of what’s called the “IDF’s long arm.” Its fighters are certainly aware of the great responsibility on their shoulders – and feel deep commitment to missions. “You can see it in the team’s mobilization rates,” says Staff Sergeant B. “We have 100 percent mobilization. When they need us, we come. Closing circles is what gives added value to the question of what we’re doing here. There’s a terrorist here who maybe walked right here on October 7 – and we managed to eliminate him. It took time, but we caught him – and it’s worth everything.”
The way back to Nahal Oz outpost is quite pastoral. Yellow corn fields on one side, half-plowed field on the other. The high chair doesn’t really protect me from drops from the large mud puddle we pass through, and the only thing slowing Captain N. down, temporarily, is a tractor driving lazily back to the kibbutz.
So yes, the war is somewhat forgotten here, outside the Strip. And yes, the fighters in the Hammer feel the erosion well, but are determined to continue. Captain Y. says every time he arrives at the Gaza periphery, he receives reinforcement for the righteousness of the path. “I pass by Nir Am on the way to the Tkuma Administration conference and remember the ambush we did here on October 8. One of the friends, who said, ‘I’m sure I’m going to die here tonight.’ It won’t happen again.”
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