35th Paratroopers Brigade

The 35th Paratroopers Brigade serves as one of the four active brigades of the IDF Infantry Corps, alongside the Golani, Givati, and Nahal brigades.[1] It contains infantry battalions as well as reconnaissance, engineering, signals, and anti-tank companies.[3] Sources also associate the brigade with battalions named Efea, Pathan, and Tsefa—names drawn from types of snakes—and with an elite paratrooper commando unit.[4]

The numerical designation is explicit in sources discussing the IDF’s active brigades, Battalion 202, and some modern operations.[1][2] Other historical accounts use “Paratroopers Brigade” or “paratroopers” more broadly and sometimes cover reserve formations. This article therefore identifies reserve units where the sources do so and avoids assigning generally described paratrooper operations specifically to the 35th Brigade.

The broader lineage of Israel’s paratroopers reaches back to a remarkable act of wartime courage. In 1943, 32 Palestinian Jewish volunteers parachuted into Nazi-occupied Europe while serving with the British Army and assisting Jewish resistance movements.[3] Twelve were captured and did not return. Among the best known were Hannah Senesh and Yoel Palgi.[3] During the War of Independence, David Ben-Gurion summoned Palgi to form the first Israeli paratroop unit, which initially had an unsuitable commando aircraft and 4,000 second-hand parachutes purchased as scrap material.[3]

In the summer of 1949, Yehuda Harari took command of the paratroop unit and reorganized it by removing unfit personnel, relocating it to a more suitable base, acquiring proper equipment, and organizing the first jumpmasters course.[3] The paratroopers subsequently developed a reputation for strict discipline, courage, initiative, dedication to duty, and high performance standards.[3]

The force was later expanded to brigade strength, and the formal brigade is dated to 1955, with then-Major Ariel Sharon—later Israel’s eleventh prime minister—as its first commander.[3][2] In its early years, the brigade was associated with Sharon and the Israeli-made Uzi submachine gun and acquired a reputation as an experienced force assigned demanding combat missions.[4]

The brigade’s stated capabilities encompass airborne, heliborne, amphibious, armored-infantry, and anti-armor operations, as well as integrated exercises with other military services.[3] Active infantry brigades also support special-forces operations against terrorist and guerrilla organizations, while elite units may be employed as high-quality infantry when wartime conditions require it.[1]

The brigade is recognizable by its red boots and crimson berets.[4] It receives as many as five times more applicants than it can accept, with candidates subjected to rigorous selection and arduous training.[3] Prospective paratroopers must make five jumps on the last day of training to qualify.[2] The wider curriculum includes physical fitness, topography, weapons mastery, mobile and amphibious operations, integrated exercises with armor and artillery, day and night assaults, and instruction at the IDF Jump School.[3]

During the early 1950s, cross-border Arab infiltrations became a severe security problem; one brigade history records approximately 3,000 infiltrations in 1952.[3] Unit 101 was founded in August 1953 to conduct reprisal raids against Arab states harboring Palestinian infiltrators and guerrillas.[1]

Despite never exceeding 45 personnel, Unit 101 carried out several dozen missions before merging with the newly formed 890th Paratroop Battalion in January 1954.[1] The unit helped establish the combat-leadership norm known as “follow me,” together with an informal atmosphere and distinctive esprit de corps that influenced later generations of IDF personnel.[1] During 1955–56, the expanded paratrooper force conducted ten major reprisal operations—including actions at Rahwa, Jarandal, Husan, and Kalkilya—which temporarily reduced terrorist activity and supplied combat experience that was incorporated into its doctrine.[3]

An academic study describes the paratroopers of this period as part of a heroic military ethos built around reprisal raids and connects the formation of the special unit under Ariel Sharon to cross-border infiltration, pillage, and murder threatening Israeli communities.[6]

The 1956 Sinai Campaign produced the IDF’s first and only combat parachute drop, although a second operational jump later in the campaign did not result in battle.[2][4] On October 29, 1956, 395 Israeli paratroopers jumped from 16 Dakota aircraft near the Mitla Pass in what the National Library of Israel identifies as the first operational parachute jump in IDF history.[4] The dropped battalion was commanded by Rafael “Raful” Eitan, while the remainder of Sharon’s brigade traveled approximately 300 kilometers overland, including 200 kilometers through enemy territory, to link up with it. The breakthrough took 28 hours.[3]

The battle at Mitla Pass was costly. Accounts cited here record 38 paratrooper and attached Nahal deaths and more than 100 wounded; one brigade history records 260 Egyptian losses.[7][3] The 88th Nahal Battalion, attached to the Paratroopers Brigade during this period, was dropped near the combat zone and encountered Egyptian ambushes.[7] Several days later, a second operational airborne mission took place in the Al-Tur area. According to commando soldier Uri Getz, the force saw Egyptian troops fleeing while it was still airborne, encountered no battle after landing, and completed the mission without casualties.[4]

The brigade also captured Ras Sudar and Sharm el-Sheikh.[3] The Sinai experience remained a model for later training: in the years preceding the Six-Day War, Eitan conducted integrated exercises with armored forces that prepared the brigade to fight deep in enemy territory and operate independently when cut off from other units, equipment, and supplies.[8]

Paratrooper formations fought on several fronts during the Six-Day War. In Sinai, the regular Paratroopers Brigade formed part of General Israel Tal’s division during the breakthrough at Rafiah, where Israeli forces encountered Egyptian troops in fortified positions and built-up areas.[8] At Umm Katef and Abu Ageila, Danny Matt’s paratroopers attacked Egyptian artillery batteries in the rear of the defensive complex beginning around midnight, while armored and infantry forces attacked from other directions.[8]

In Jerusalem, the formation involved was the 55th Paratroopers Reserve Brigade under Motta Gur. At Ammunition Hill, 36 paratroopers were killed and 15 soldiers received commendations.[4] Eitan Naveh was the first soldier to emerge from the trenches, clearing a path and providing cover before being shot and killed; he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Valor, the IDF’s highest commendation.[4] His final letter included the phrase, “We will not embarrass the firm.”[4]

On June 7, 1967, the reserve paratroopers captured the Old City, conquered the Mount of Olives, and reached the Western Wall, returning the site to Jewish control after nearly two thousand years.[4][3] The date became Jerusalem Day, a national holiday marking Jerusalem’s reunification under Israeli sovereignty.[4] Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin later described Gur’s soldiers as battle-weary and emotionally overwhelmed, with tears in their eyes and difficulty speaking.[9] Gur told them: “You have been given the great privilege of completing the circle, of returning to the nation its capital and its holy center... Jerusalem is yours forever.”[9]

On December 23, 1969, during the War of Attrition, paratroopers airlifted an entire Soviet radar station from Egypt and transported it to Israel.[3] Other operations included the 1968 raid on Beirut Airport and a further Beirut raid in 1973.[3]

During the Yom Kippur War, paratrooper formations crossed the Suez Canal as part of the Israeli counteroffensive, fought at the Chinese Farm, and participated in the capture of Mount Hermon and other positions on the Syrian front.[3]

Paratroopers also participated in the June–July 1976 Entebbe hostage-rescue operation. Palestinian terrorists diverted an Air France aircraft to Uganda, where passengers who were not Israeli or Jewish were released while Israeli and Jewish passengers were held.[10] The Israeli force traveled approximately 4,000 kilometers to conduct the rescue.[10][11] Doron Almog, who at the time commanded the Paratroopers Brigade, was reported to be the first Israeli soldier to set foot at Entebbe Airport.[11] Israeli forces freed the hostages and brought the rescued group back to Israel in an operation described by the Ministry of Defense archive as one of the most daring in IDF history.[10]

Operation Litani in 1978 followed the Coastal Road Massacre, in which 37 civilians were killed and 80 wounded. Paratroopers were among the forces deployed into southern Lebanon.[3]

During the 1982 Lebanon War, paratrooper forces fought Syrian troops and terrorist organizations in built-up and mountainous terrain while coordinating with other IDF corps, the Navy, and the Air Force.[3] An amphibious landing at the mouth of the Awali River north of Sidon preceded an advance through the mountains toward Beirut.[3] Another cited account states that the paratroopers reached Beirut first through the mountainous route.[12]

The brigade’s elite reconnaissance battalion was created during the First Lebanon War under Doron Almog.[13] Its wartime role includes advance reconnaissance, sabotage, and deep missions inside enemy territory. It operates specialized demolitions and combat-engineering, reconnaissance, and anti-tank companies, with additional training in counterterrorism, navigation, and underground warfare.[13]

Aviv Kochavi served as commander of the Paratroopers Brigade from 1995 to 1997 and again from 2001 to 2003.[14] During Operation Defensive Shield, he led the brigade in capturing the Balata refugee camp in Nablus.[14] To reduce the danger of entering through front doors covered by prepared sniper positions, he developed a tactic of breaching residential walls to create unexpected entry points. The tactic was later adopted by the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan.[14]

Herzl “Herzi” Halevi volunteered for the paratroopers after joining the IDF, led the brigade’s anti-tank company during counter-guerrilla operations in South Lebanon, and commanded the 35th Paratroopers Brigade during Operation Cast Lead in 2008–2009.[15] On January 6, 2009, Captain Yehonatan Netanel, a 27-year-old officer from Kedumim serving in the brigade, was killed in northern Gaza by an errant IDF tank shell.[16]

During Hamas’s terrorist attack on October 7, 2023, paratrooper commandos and the 890th Battalion fought to liberate Kibbutz Be’eri and Kibbutz Kfar Aza. The battles lasted approximately two days as soldiers cleared the communities of terrorists and freed families who had remained in shelters; the brigade lost 16 soldiers in these engagements.[4]

A February 2024 report said the Paratroopers Brigade operated in Khan Younis’s al-Amal neighborhood, reportedly killing numerous Hamas operatives and locating weapons, tunnel shafts, observation posts, weapons-manufacturing facilities, and dozens of other Hamas-associated sites. It also reported that Israeli forces seized NIS 3 million from locations where Hamas had hidden funds.[17] A separate February 9 report identified a Paratroopers Brigade operating west of Khan Younis, killing 15 terrorists and finding AK-47 rifles, cartridges, and grenades, but did not establish whether the force was the regular 35th Brigade or a reserve formation.[18]

In another western Khan Younis operation, the 35th Paratroopers Brigade explicitly supported an IDF offensive alongside special forces, the 7th Armored Brigade, and the 84th Infantry Brigade. The forces encircled a local refugee camp and advanced toward Hamas command-and-control sites after an extensive Israeli Air Force bombardment; the IDF reported approximately 50 terrorists killed since the operation began.[5] A later report described a Paratroopers Brigade operating under the IDF’s 36th Division in close-quarters combat, coordinating air strikes and destroying military compounds, weapons stockpiles, explosives, and tunnels with assistance from Yahalom combat engineers. That report did not specify whether the formation was the regular 35th Brigade.[19]

A report on an approximately month-long 98th Division operation in Khan Younis and the Deir al-Balah area that concluded in August 2024 identified paratroopers fighting in Hamad Town and eastern Khan Younis, helping destroy approximately six tunnels, finding weapons, and eliminating terrorists.[20] Working with Yahalom combat engineers, the paratroopers recovered the bodies of six hostages from a Hamas tunnel in Hamad Town. The report did not identify whether they belonged to the regular 35th Brigade or a reserve formation.[20]

The National Library of Israel credits the broader Paratroopers Brigade tradition with producing ten IDF chiefs of staff.[4] Figures associated with paratrooper formations across the cited sources include Motta Gur, Moshe Levy, Dan Shomron, Rafael “Raful” Eitan, Moshe “Bogie” Ya’alon, Benny Gantz, Aviv Kochavi, and Herzi Halevi.[4][2]

The numerical 35th Brigade can be linked directly to several senior officers. Amnon Shahak and Matan Vilna’i both served in the 35th Paratroop Brigade.[1] Ya’alon commanded the Paratroopers Brigade after earlier commands in its reconnaissance formation and the 890th Battalion.[8] Kochavi later became IDF chief of staff.[14] Halevi’s career after commanding the 35th during Cast Lead included command of the 91st Division, leadership of Military Intelligence and Southern Command, service as deputy chief of staff, and appointment as IDF chief of staff in 2022.[15]

The brigade’s founding commander, Ariel Sharon, later became Israel’s eleventh prime minister.[2] The number of senior commanders connected to the regular brigade and the wider paratrooper tradition reflects the formation’s longstanding role in developing Israeli military leadership.

The 35th Paratroopers Brigade holds a prominent place in Israeli military history through the reprisal era of the 1950s, the 1956 combat parachute drop, and later conventional and counterterrorism operations.[3][2] The wider paratrooper tradition also includes the 55th Reserve Brigade’s capture of Jerusalem’s Old City and return to the Western Wall in June 1967.[4]

The formation’s influence on IDF practice is visible in Unit 101’s “follow me” leadership norm, the emphasis on operating independently when cut off behind enemy lines, and Kochavi’s later wall-breaching tactic.[1][8] The latter provides a documented example of a brigade tactic subsequently being adopted by the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan.[14]

Yossi Klein Halevi’s Like Dreamers focuses on seven paratroopers who fought in Jerusalem in 1967 and later followed divergent paths through Israeli society, illustrating the wider paratrooper tradition’s place in national memory.[21] The lineage presented by the cited histories—from Jewish volunteers parachuting into Nazi-occupied Europe to paratrooper operations in the twenty-first century—has made the red beret a recognizable symbol of Israeli military service.[3][4]

The brigade’s name and training contrast with its airborne combat record. Prospective paratroopers make five qualifying jumps, yet the brigade has conducted only one combat parachute drop: the October 29, 1956 jump near the Mitla Pass.[2] A second operational parachute mission took place at Al-Tur during the same campaign but encountered no battle.[4] A cited account states that neither the regular brigade nor its reserve brigades subsequently parachuted behind enemy lines.[12]

Helicopter mobility later replaced parachute insertion for many operational purposes because helicopters offered faster and more flexible deployment, although parachuting retained morale and prestige value.[12] Historical accounts also differ in scope: some use “Paratroopers Brigade” or “paratroopers” for the wider family of regular and reserve formations. The 55th Reserve Brigade, not the regular 35th, fought for Jerusalem’s Old City in 1967, and several 2024 reports do not establish whether the paratroopers described were from the 35th or a reserve brigade.[4][18]