https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-893279
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-893282
Israel breaks new ground at sea
The Navy has been carrying out more risky operations.
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.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-893279
Israeli Navy hits Iran, Hezbollah, Syria, Yemen, and Gaza targets with precision strikes
The Israel Navy has torn apart enemy forces in Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, and Yemen since 2023, raising Israel’s power in the Middle East to new heights, since most of its rivals have been wiped out militarily.
With over 1,000 naval combat soldiers at sea, logging over 26,000 operational hours in only 47 days of the current war with Iran and Hezbollah, the Navy said on Thursday that it has already undertaken or provided critical intelligence for 154 attacks.
95 of these attacks have been in Iran.
Of those 95 attacks, 68 of them were undertaken by US forces, but were entirely based on Israeli naval intelligence.
27 of those attacks were solely by the Israeli naval intelligence and carried out by the air force.
This was a major jump from the Navy's involvement in the June 2025 war with Iran, in which it had a much smaller, though still lethal, role.
During the current war, the Navy has also struck 53 targets in Lebanon.
These attacks included 35 general attacks, 18 senior targeted assassination targets, and six special forces operations.
In addition, the Navy has attacked six targets in Gaza, mostly senior terror operatives, during the current war.
Previously, IDF Navy Lt. "G" told the Jerusalem Post that during Operation Rising Lion against Iran, "I was in a bunch of operations. To be part of these operations felt like a substantial contribution."
G added, "For two-and-a-half years, sometimes it was hard to see why the training mattered. But when you are on the frontlines at sea, it helps you connect everything you studied to something real and practical. The climax was against Iran, we had the chance to perform all of the skills which we learned during the course."
IDF destroys Syrian submarines, other naval capabilities
In December 2024, when the Assad regime fell, the Israeli military went after the Syrian military's capabilities to ensure that they would not be passed on to the next regime, with fears of new Syrian leader Ahmad al-Sharaa's jihadist past.
Although the Navy's involvement in these attacks has been discussed before, on Thursday, the Navy revealed far more nuance and detail about them.
According to the Navy, it destroyed 15 out of 21 Syrian naval ships.
These ships all included long-range missiles capable of reaching targets 80-200 kilometers away.
The Navy said that it struck these ships mainly at two bases: Latakia and Tel Baida, and that they were all destroyed within only a few hours.
Next, the Navy said there were complex reasons that could not be disclosed why the other six ships could not be struck.
It is well known that parts of the Syrian and Russian militaries were combined in terms of personnel and equipment at the time.
In addition, the Navy said it helped the air force destroy five advanced Syrian anti-aircraft batteries in 40 minutes, eliminating hundreds of powerful long-range missiles, including Styx missiles.
Overall, this eliminated 70-75% of a certain category of missiles.
IDF destroyed nearly all of Hezbollah's ship-to-ship missiles
The Israeli Navy disclosed on Thursday that it destroyed nearly all of the 100 advanced ship-to-ship missiles that Hezbollah possessed in 2023, destroying them between the fall of 2023 and 2024, before the major escalation with the terror group took place.
The idea was to disarm Hezbollah of many of its strategic weapons gradually over time, so that it would not sense how much weaker it was in the big and sudden moment when the IDF would hit it with all of its might, until it would be too late.
According to the Navy, 50% of these missiles were destroyed in Dahiyeh, Beirut, and another 50% in Darlat.
Further, the Navy revealed that it has mostly destroyed Hezbollah's Unit 1200, which had a substantial number of underwater drones before 2023.
The Navy said it destroyed nearly all of them within a few hours at a specific location where Hezbollah concealed them, thinking they would be safe.
Yemen's naval capability: 'You need to be independent'
In Yemen, the Navy disclosed that at least one of its targets was 150 kilometers inland, whereas most air force targets have been closer to the coast.
Lt. Y told the Post about his involvement in operations against the Houthis of Yemen at a distance of around 1,700 kilometers from Israel.
"No one can help you when you are that far away. You need to be independent. If there is a problem, no one can send a helicopter to perform a rescue. And I got to see up close the impact of the operation. Then there was nothing close to the great feeling when we finally returned home from so far away," said Y.
While Y declined to discuss the specifics of the operation against Yemen, the Post and other Hebrew media previously reported on June 10, 2025, that two of Israel's navy missile boats, one of them a Sa'ar 6, fired two long-range precision missiles from hundreds of kilometers away at the Houthi port in Hodeidah.
That attack marked the first time during the Israel-Hamas War that the Navy attacked Yemen.
Regarding that attack, some of the Houthi targets that were struck were platforms for ships to anchor on within the port.
Further, the IDF said that the explosive power of sea-to-land missiles would leave a lasting mark and increase deterrence in a different way than air-to-ground bombs.
Getting the Navy involved was part of Israel's broader strategy to deter foreign ships from using the port since naval vessels can remain in the area and strike repeatedly. They can also accomplish this much more easily than aircraft, which attack and then must immediately fly back to their home airbase before running out of fuel.
Moreover, because the Navy can remain at sea for an extended period, it can be more precise about the ideal moment to strike.
Nearly all of Hamas's naval commandos have been killed or wounded
The Navy disclosed on Thursday that Hamas had over 300 naval commandos in 2023, and that nearly all of them have been killed or wounded.
Despite that broad success, the Navy admitted that Hamas still has naval commandos and has continued to work to reconstitute that force.
Showing that it will not go along with this Hamas plan quietly, the Navy revealed that in the last two weeks, it has killed four Hamas naval commandos.
The Israeli Navy currently has around 10,000 soldiers in total to address all those fronts.
In addition, the IDF revealed on Thursday that for the first time, three submarines performed three separate operations simultaneously in completely different areas.
Late Thursday, Navy Chief Maj. Gen. David Saar Salame will conclude an unusually long four-and-a-half-year term and 39 years in the Navy.
Outgoing IDF Planning Directorate chief V.-Adm. Eyal Harel is replacing Saar Salame after IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir won a battle royale with Defense Minister Israel Katz to secure his appointment to the position.
The truth is that Harel was probably only collateral damage in a larger battle in which Katz was trying to force Zamir to pick IDF officers he deemed likely to be more loyal to him, such as for the US defense attaché position in Washington, DC.
That position has been vacant for several months, prompting Zamir to appoint IDF Brig. Gen. Arik Ben Dov, as the military's acting defense attache to the US, returned on December 11.
Given that there have been no developments since, it is possible that Ben Dov will continue to serve in an "acting" capacity, essentially on a permanent basis, at least through Israeli elections into late 2026 or even 2027.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-893282
