One of the untold stories of Israel’s wars since 2023 has been the new cutting-edge activities and cooperation among Shayetet 13 (Israel’s equivalent of the US Navy Seals), the Mossad, and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency).
On Tuesday, Shayetet 13 invaded Naqoura, Lebanon, from the sea – the first time such an operation has occurred in Lebanon since 2000, the Israel Navy reported Thursday.
According to the military, this move was made as part of a new attitude by the IDF and the navy after the October 7 massacre of forward-leaning defense.
For the ground forces, this has manifested itself in creating buffer zones in Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria. For the navy, it has meant special forces carrying out more risky and aggressive operations behind enemy lines.
In one mission, five Shayetet 13 naval commandos were sent thousands of kilometers away from Israel with no support and no immediate rescue plan in the event of complications, the navy disclosed, without revealing dates and locations.
Shayetet 13 invades Naqura in first
In yet another vaguely described mission, the navy said it had sent Shayetet 13 on a mission to a part of the world where it had never operated before.
The navy said its joint operations with the Mossad have reached new levels in recent years.
The navy declined to connect the dots regarding exact operations in which it had worked with the Mossad. But it did say the Naval Intelligence Division was directly involved in the killing of Iranian Navy commander Alireza Tangsiri and had facilitated IAF attacks against Iranian naval cruise missiles and sites related to submarines and other underwater threats.
Likewise, the navy said it had been involved in both intelligence and operations in eliminating five senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force liaison officials with Hezbollah in an attack on the Ramada Hotel in Beirut on March 8.
Until now, the navy’s involvement had been kept classified.
In that attack, the navy fired 14 missiles to kill the five officials, who were top commanders in Quds Force-Hezbollah intelligence and terrorist financing and had links to Palestinian terrorist groups in Lebanon.
The terrorist financing official was the key actor in transferring $770 million from Iran to Hezbollah over the past year, the IDF reported.
It is well known that the Mossad has for years been the main actor for locating and assassinating top Iranian officials, whether in Iran itself, or Quds Force officials overseas, including in Lebanon. The navy has also become involved in these efforts.
The IDF Intelligence Corps is also usually in the picture, and the navy said their work together in recent years has been unparalleled.
In Gaza, the Shin Bet took the lead for planning top-level Hamas assassinations.
While most of these were carried out by the IAF, on Thursday, the navy said it had also been involved in a number of these assassinations, working directly with the Shin Bet in new ways.
Last November 19, the navy worked with the IDF Intelligence Corps to assassinate Hamas naval commander Abdullah Abu Samael after Hamas significantly violated the ceasefire.
On March 16, the Shin Bet, the navy, and the IDF Intelligence Corps jointly assassinated Yunas Mahmoud Hasin Elian, a top Hamas naval commander.
Elian had been substantially responsible for attempts by Hamas to reconstitute itself as posing a naval threat to Israel, the IDF said.
On March 31, the navy, working with other Israeli intelligence agencies, assassinated Hezbollah’s commander for the southern front, Hajj Yusuf Ismail Hashem, it said.