IDF Special Units and Their Close-Combat Training
What Sayeret Matkal, Shayetet 13, Duvdevan, and the LOTAR counter-terror school actually train — and what civilians can and cannot infer about it.
The Israeli special-operations community trains close-combat material that goes well beyond standard IDF Krav Maga. Most of it is classified in its specifics, but enough is publicly known to outline the structure.
The major special-operations units
- Sayeret Matkal: the IDF General Staff's deep-reconnaissance and counter-terror unit. Close-combat training emphasizes silent takedowns, hostage rescue, and CQB (close-quarters battle) integration.
- Shayetet 13: the Israeli Navy's elite commando unit, equivalent to a SEAL team. Adds maritime and amphibious scenarios — boarding, vessel-clearance, vehicle takedowns from water.
- Duvdevan: the IDF's elite undercover unit, operating in Arab-civilian dress in the West Bank. Trains a doctrine of low-profile engagement, concealment, and rapid escalation from passive to lethal.
- LOTAR Counter-Terror School: the central training facility for advanced counter-terror skills, including hostage rescue, suicide-bomber engagement, and aircraft / bus / building clearance.
What's public about the training
- The curriculum extends standard IDF Krav Maga with weapon retention under load, partner-shooting integration, and CQB sequences
- Stress drilling is taken further — sleep-deprivation drills, multi-day continuous scenarios, immersive force-on-force with role-players
- Trainers rotate between operational and instructional roles, keeping the curriculum current
What civilians cannot infer
A civilian Krav Maga school marketing "special operations training" is generally selling either: (a) a civilian curriculum with one or two cosmetic special-ops scenarios added, or (b) a course developed by an ex-operator that draws on his service but is not the actual classified curriculum. Neither is necessarily bad — but both are different from "what Sayeret Matkal trains."
Operators in the civilian Krav Maga world
Several senior Krav Maga civilian instructors are ex-operators — most prominently Itay Gil (see his lineage page) and a number of former LOTAR instructors who run private close-combat consultancies. Their courses are the closest thing to operator-level training civilians can access, with the explicit caveat that operational doctrine and civilian self-defense are different problems.