460th Armored Brigade (Israel)

The 460th Armored Brigade belongs to the IDF's 366th Armor Division, known as the Amud ha-Esh ("Pillar of Fire") Formation, which falls under Southern Command.[1] The brigade's formal function is to train the Armored Corps, and it maintains two dedicated installations for this purpose.[1] Shizafon serves as the school for armored corps commanders, while Magen-Sayarim is the site of both basic and advanced training.[1]

The brigade's 196th Command Battalion is equipped with Merkava Mark 4 tanks and is organized into nine companies.[2] Soldiers in the battalion undergo rigorous screening: the strongest candidates advance to officer courses and return to the brigade to lead tank platoons, making the unit a pipeline for elite armored leadership.[2] In a February 2026 reorganization, the brigade was identified as one of the training formations to be consolidated under the newly forming 38th Division, whose commander would assume responsibility for the operational deployment of training brigades in wartime.[3]

In 2016, the IDF named Colonel Omer Moran to take command of the brigade, then publicly referred to under its "Sons of Light" Brigade designation.[4]

During Operation Protective Edge in 2014, the 460th was among the Armored Corps' regular brigades that participated directly in the fighting.[5] Because the brigade ordinarily housed the Armored Corps School (Bislash), the operation disrupted its training calendar: candidates for tank-commanders' courses were reassigned as tank crew members, officer-training cadets served as commanders, and soldiers who had just completed basic training helped secure assembly areas.[5] Training courses were postponed and shortened until the fighting ended.[5]

On October 7, 2023, brigade commander Colonel Dvir Adri mobilized the unit and received orders to reach communities near the Gaza border.[6] Brigade members traveling from Shizafon linked up with company commanders who had already been en route for hours, and together they cleared Route 232 (Hushiel Road) over two and a half days.[6] The deployment marked the shift of a training formation into active combat operations; the brigade later returned to Shizafon between frontline rotations.[6]

In the first ground-maneuver phase, the 460th operated under the 162nd Division.[6] The brigade opened and protected a logistical route, conducted engineering work to destroy enemy infrastructure, and subsequently cleared areas in the al-Shati refugee camp, Jabalia, and Daraj Tuffah.[6] Colonel Adri later described the brigade's first deployment as spanning those tasks, noting that the unit had been engaged in the war for eight months at the time of his interview, with intervals back at Shizafon for training between rotations.[6]

In November 2023, a team from the brigade located rocket-launch pits inside a mosque during area-clearance operations in Gaza and destroyed them.[7] In another operation in Jabalia, the brigade combat team raided the Al-Bisan outpost of Hamas's Central Jabalia Battalion. The IDF said several terrorists were killed and that troops found a tunnel network leading outside the post, a training compound, and a weapons depot.[8] In early December 2023, forces from the brigade and the 50th Battalion discovered a large weapons stockpile near a school and a health clinic in northern Gaza.[9] The materiel reportedly included hundreds of missiles and RPG launchers of various types, dozens of anti-tank missiles and explosive charges, long-range missiles assessed as targeting central Israel, dozens of grenades, and unmanned aerial vehicles; the forces seized the cache, detonated some items on site, and sent others for investigation.[9]

Also in December 2023, the Shin Bet and the 460th Brigade arrested dozens of individuals who emerged from Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, taking them for questioning by the Shin Bet and Military Intelligence Unit 504.[10] Separately, the IDF reported that more than 70 people had exited the hospital carrying weapons before surrendering.[10] A mako report from late December further described infantry and armor forces of the brigade's combat team, including Battalion 50, raiding orchards in Daraj Tuffah, where the IDF said they found five offensive tunnel shafts and numerous rocket-launch pits.[11] During one encounter, terrorists fired RPGs and small arms at the troops; tank fire killed two terrorists crawling toward the soldiers with weapons.[11]

A raid in Daraj Tuffah also saw brigade forces take control of what the IDF described as terrorist infrastructure in the home of the commander of Hamas's Gaza City Brigade, enabling special forces to conduct a follow-on search.[12] The IDF credited the brigade with killing dozens of terrorists and uncovering intelligence material linking the central mosque in Daraj Tuffah to the October 7 attack.[12] A Ynet report from the same period described the brigade's combat team operating with Nahal forces in olive groves in eastern Daraj Tuffah, noting that tunnel shafts or rocket-launch pits were found beneath or near almost every tree and that the brigade had fired tens of thousands of tank shells during the campaign.[13] The report also described the brigade's combat team as incorporating infantry battalions from Givati and Nahal, and noted that logistics officers were piloting computerized tracking of tank ammunition to manage supply.[13]

On December 31, 2023, the IDF announced the release of the 460th Brigade from combat in Gaza, with training brigades directed to resume their normal training activity.[14] The brigade was among five formations, collectively numbering thousands of soldiers, slated for demobilization as the IDF adjusted its Gaza deployment at the start of 2024.[15] The 196th Command Battalion returned to intensive training at Shizafon, incorporating lessons from combat engagements into the curriculum and sharing findings with other Armored Corps battalions.[2]

The IDF relaunched ground operations in the Jabalya area in mid-2024, and the 460th Brigade was redeployed into the fighting. In May 2024, forces from the 98th Division — including the 7th and 460th Armored Brigades alongside paratroopers — fought armed squads in Jabalya refugee camp, with the IDF reporting a large number of fighters killed.[16] By late May, a 460th Armored Brigade combat team composed of infantry, armored, and engineering battalions was operating in the heart of Jabalya.[17] In the preceding days, the forces reportedly destroyed more than 100 pieces of terrorist infrastructure, Hamas compounds, and tunnel shafts, and recovered rockets, mortar shells, weapons, and explosives.[17]

During the same period, a surrendered fighter provided information about weapons caches; subsequent raids produced communications devices, hand grenades, AK-47 rifles, and barrel bombs.[17] The IDF also reported that fighters fired anti-tank missiles at the troops from inside a school, where soldiers found weapons hidden in UNRWA bags.[17]

Combat teams from the 7th, 460th, and Paratroopers brigades operated together under the 98th Division in a dense urban area, both above and below ground, with the IDF reporting the destruction of more than ten kilometers of tunnels and the recovery of the bodies of seven hostages during the division's Jabalya campaign.[18]

A later operation saw the 460th, Givati, and 401st brigades surround Jabalya camp.[19] The 460th reached schools and shelters in the area, which the IDF credited with enabling the evacuation of approximately 5,000 residents, and the brigade encircled Kamal Adwan Hospital.[19] By October 2024, the 401st and 460th Armored Brigades had completed the encirclement of Jabalya and were continuing operations there following intelligence that the IDF said indicated Hamas was attempting to re-establish itself in the area.[20]

Three soldiers from the brigade's 196th Battalion Tank Commanders Course — Captain Barak Israel Sagan, Sergeant Ido Ben Zvi, and Sergeant Hillel Ovadia — were killed in late October 2024 when their Merkava Mark 4 tank suffered severe damage, likely from a powerful explosive device; another soldier was wounded.[21] The brigade had been operating in the Jabalya sector for roughly a month by that point.[21] A reserve-company soldier, after four weeks in Jabalya, was quoted telling his battalion commander: "If you call us tomorrow, we'll show up."[2]

During an encounter in Tel al-Sultan, Rafah, on October 16–17, 2024, the 460th Brigade provided armored support to infantry of the 828th Brigade.[22] The brigade was acting in its capacity as a training brigade furnishing armored assets to a frontline infantry formation.[22] Long War Journal, citing Ynet, reported that a Merkava Mark 4 tank shell fired by a 460th Brigade tank and a Matador missile were used in the engagement with Yahya Sinwar and two other terrorists. The encounter began around 10 a.m. on October 16, and soldiers found Sinwar's body the following morning.[22]

The 460th Brigade's experience in the 2023–24 war illustrates the IDF's practice of mobilizing its dedicated training formations when operational demand is high. The brigade cycled between combat tours in Gaza and resumption of its training mission at Shizafon, with commanders deliberately incorporating battlefield lessons into courses upon return.[2][13] This dual role dates at least to Operation Protective Edge in 2014, when the training calendar was compressed to allow trainees and cadets to serve as crew members and commanders in the field.[5] The emerging 38th Division structure is intended to formalize wartime command over such training brigades, ensuring their operational deployment is coordinated at the divisional level.[3]