The morning of October 4, 2003, the phone rings in Avi Ochayon's house. On the other end is the voice of Commander Zohar Dvir, who has been leading one of Israel 'sSpecial Counter-Terrorism Unit for five and a half years.
"The circle has been closed," Dvir says before telling Ochayon that moments earlier the unit had taken out the Fatah terrorist responsible for the murder of Ochayon's wife, Revital, and two children, Noam and Matan, in the family's home in Kibbutz Metzer precisely one year earlier.
Commander Dvir remembers the call to this day. "The murder of the Ochayon family was the most difficult. We saw the images, the mother Revital with her arms around the children and the bastard who murdered them in cold blood. It dented my heart. One year later, after we killed those responsible – I had to call."
This week, the 42 year-old Dvir would end his term at the unit. Dvir served as the unit’s commander during the toughest years of the al-Aqsa intifada. The unit participated in hundreds of operations in the West Bank and Gaza, and also aided in preventing crimes within the green line.
Dvir refused to appear in the press for a long time. It was only now, just before he ended his term, that he was willing to speak for the first time about the unit.
‘We wanted more level-headed people’
Israel's Special Counter-Terrorism Unit was established in 1974 following a terrorist attack in Maalot. But the process began even before then, when Israeli athletes were murdered in the Munich Olympics.
“Everyone understood that something different was needed in fighting terror,” Dvir explained. After the attack in Maalot, it was decided that internal security would become the responsibility of the Israeli police, and not the IDF.
The tasks given to the Special Counter-Terrorism Unit were rescuing conventional and unconventional hostages, dealing with sever crimes, and fighting terror attacks.
The unit’s fighters all served a minimum of three years in the army and had combat experience. About 80 percent of the fighters came from special units in the army and about 50 percent held officer positions. The age range of the fighters was between 27 and 39, depending on the position.
“The advantage of these ages is that they don’t have the initial enthusiasm young soldiers arriving at the army have. They are people who know what it’s about, more level-headed people,” Dvir explained.
Dvir himself arrived at the Special Counter-Terrorism Unit as a lieutenant colonel, and had already managed to hold several positions in the army before then.
'Unit available at moments notice'
During the intifada, the Special Counter-Terrorism Unit participated in a significant number of operations against terrorists and wanted criminals under the military and alongside Shin Beit.
The police commissioner approves the “lending” of the unit to the army, and operations are approved at a higher rank – often by the prime minister, the defense minister, or the IDF chief of staff. Dvir explained that the unit was very accessible and available at a moments notice when needed.
From January 2001 to December 2006, the unit’s fighters killed 129 armed Palestinians, arrested 550 wanted criminals, and injured 44.
The fighters also assassinated about 40 suicide bombers before they managed to enter Israel and carry out their terror attacks. Only 18 Special Counter-Terrorism Unit fighters have been injured in various operations, most of them lightly.