Lotar Counter-Terrorism Unit in

The Lotar counter-terror unit practiced hostage saving in an urban area environment.

Shadows in the Night: The Elite Counter-Terrorist Forces of Lotar Eilat

Eilat, a city of 55,000 people, is located at the southern-most tip of Israel, wedged between Egypt and Jordan. Because the city is so far from the center of the country, it needs an independent counter-terror force that can be ready on short notice.
With this in mind, IDF reservists living in Eilat who served in some of the IDF’s best units volunteered to create Lotar Eilat in the 1970s.
“Few people believed in us in the beginning,” said A., the oldest soldier of the unit. But when a Jordanian soldier infiltrated Israel in 1989 and took a young woman from Kibbutz Lotan hostage, the IDF called up Lotar Eilat who eliminated the threat and freed the hostage. Since then, the unit has taken part in many different operations. Since the early 2000s, Lotar Eilat has been considered one of the best special forces units of the IDF, alongside units such as Sayeret Matkal or Shayetet 13.