Magen Yehuda (The Shield of Judea) has been training first-response teams throughout Judea and Samaria, offering courses for civilians on proper response to attacks on the road. It has now been contacted by Israeli towns along the Gaza and northern borders with requests for training.



“With fighting soldiers sent to carry out more and more dangerous operations, soldiers untrained in counter-terror tactics are left guarding communities,” explains Magen Yehuda spokesman and trainer Gideon Kelman.



In 2002, a program called Mivtzar was established. A joint initiative of the Defense Ministry, IDF and Yesha Council, the program sought to take veterans of IDF Special Forces living in Judea and Samaria communities and build an infrastructure to enable towns to respond to a terror attack in their own community.



The program was very successful, and was implemented in the communities of Nokdim, Alfei Menashe, Beitar Illit, Efrat, Itamar, Kedumim and Kedar. It came to a halt after only a year, however, due to budget issues. It was later renewed but faced the same issues and its future is now uncertain.



Now, on the eve of what some intelligence analysts forecast to be a renewed and more violent third wave of terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria, Magen Yehuda has embarked on an effort to form tactical first-response teams in threatened communities.



“In the event of a terrorist infiltration, it takes the IDF time to reach a community,” Kelman explains. “The most lethal time period of an infiltration is the first number of minutes – and that is where the first-response teams make all the difference between life and death.”

A first-response tactical team undergoing counter-terror training to prepare to respond in real-time to a terrorist attack on a community.


Magen Yehuda has operated for three years, training many civilian response teams. Working together with a community, an individualized training program is constructed, including everything from selection of suitable residents as candidates to tailored scenarios based on intelligence information in a particular region.



Magen Yehuda demands from the participants that training days remain unpaid and on a purely voluntary basis. Funding from the US pays for the training, but members of the team use their own vacation time to train.



“We do not supply equipment. We supply skills and training,” Kelman says. “And everything is 100% coordinated with the IDF. In many cases, we even use IDF training grounds for tactical methods and fighting.”



People trained by Magen Yehuda have already proven the value of their training in various situations.



The organization does not only deal with special forces veterans, but with civilians as well – some of whom are new immigrants and have never handled a firearm. “We offer free lectures, mostly to new immigrants and civilians, on how to react in the event of an attack at home, in public, or while driving,” Kelman says. “We also run one-day training sessions for women that include practical use of weapons and special driving skills in case of a Molotov Cocktail attack while they are driving.”

A weapons-training course for women
A group of young residents takes part in an awareness course aimed at preparing civilians to react correctly during an attack on the road or in their communities.
A young woman during a training drill on thwarting a kidnapping attempt at a hitchhiking post.


Such sessions address such issues as how to drive in the event of an Arab road-block and how to develop an emergency system with one’s family to duck and cover in the event of a fire-bomb attack while driving.

Teenagers during a civilian training course on how to respond during a terror attack.


Kelman will be addressing groups in the United States in the coming weeks. For more information, email: office@magenyehuda.net or click here.