The IDF’s Oketz unit, which mixes male and female combat soldiers with highly trained dogs, has succeeded during the war with Hamas in finding dozens of bombs, large numbers of other Hamas weapons, located terrorist hideouts and ambushes, and helped find the bodies of murdered hostages Yehudit Weiss and Noa Marciano.
More specifically, the unit and the dogs were critical in uncovering Hamas’s concealed abuse of the Turkish, Rantisi, and Shifa hospitals.
A senior IDF official described Oketz entering the hospitals with other special forces units, like Maglan.
In the Turkish hospital, they found two large bombs, one on the way into the hospital and one inside a vehicle in between two of the hospital buildings.
With the explosives in the car, after the dog signaled that it had explosives, the IDF used a Zik drone to destroy the car safely without harming any troops.
At Rantisi, a dog named “Denver” found a bomb that also contained extensive bullets and shrapnel inside it.
Near Shifa, the dogs helped find the bodies of Weiss and Marciano, including finding around 20 items related to dead hostages.
Some findings occurred in an initial eight-hour operation and some over five days afterward.
Another dog found a bomb in a physical therapy department of Shifa.
The Jerusalem Post met two such Oketz dogs during a visit to Shifa last week.
Four Oketz dogs killed in action in Gaza
Generally, Oketz found Hamas weapons in everything from being stashed within medical machines, to cabinets, to patients’ beds.
Four dogs died in action in Gaza and an additional dog died in fighting before the invasion.
One dog named “Gandi”, who died only three days ago, saved the lives of several soldiers.
The Oketz soldiers sent the dog into a multistory building. The first and second floors were found to be “clean” of threats.
But on the third floor, terrorists ambushed the dog, thinking it was soldiers.
This exposed their position and allowed the IDF to direct significant firepower to the third floor, killing the terrorists.
The dog sacrificed its life to save the soldiers who would have been ambushed, and this was only one of many such cases.
Despite the dog’s sacrifice, including on October 7, Oketz lost an officer, Aryeh Tziring, in combat and another 14 other soldiers have been wounded during the war.
A senior IDf official also singled out the female soldiers in Oketz for risking their lives and distinguishing themselves in combat situations.
Oketz also operates on the northern border and in the West Bank, especially Tulkarem.
The four different capabilities of Oketz include finding: hiding terrorists, weapons, bombs, and hostages/hostage remains.
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