
Centuries ago, nearly every New England town was home to a group of militia known for holding themselves in readiness for military action at a minute's notice. In Israel, squads of local reservists use the same principles and tactics to become an unassuming but essential part of security against terrorism and infiltration.
First To The Scene
The squads, known as the "kitot konenut" (literally 'preparedness squad') in Hebrew, are intended to be the very first response to any incident in their area of operations. Each squad consists of a number of trained responders (the exact amount is determined by the IDF or Israel Police for each locale separately) under the direction of a civilian security coordinator, known by the Hebrew acronym "ravshatz." Although they are primarily a security force, many undergo training for non-security issues like firefighting or a large vehicle collision.
The squad is established under a security body such as the IDF, Israel Police, or a local government's security department authorized by the Defense Ministry to issue firearms. The same body frequently provides additional equipment such as helmets, vests, and radios. Many squads or their supporting locale supplement their equipment, raising private funds for such things as medical gear, advanced optics, drones, vehicles, and weapon attachments. The authority and regulations of a given squad member are likewise determined by the supporting organization.
Members are required to be between 21 and 65, physically fit, with a clean criminal background, fluent in Hebrew, and to have passed basic training as a combat rifleman.
Since the squads are intended to be the first to arrive at a scene, they are drawn from local residents only, allowing them both unparalleled familiarity with their surroundings and a minuscule response time. They train for constant readiness, including keeping their rifles by their sides at all times, to ensure that they are instantly ready for a terrorist attack. Squad members also practice providing an initial response to a wide variety of incidents in their neighborhoods and helping regular forces adapt to the area as they arrive.
Service Record
As far back as the 1950s, the IDF identified the need to establish a force intimately familiar with certain areas and quick enough to respond to prevent illegal infiltrations on Israel's borders. As Israeli towns were built in Judea and Samaria, the same model was adopted to counter terrorist threats, with the IDF providing each town its squad, supplies, and the combat training needed for effective operations. In the 1970s, such squads were added to towns around the Jerusalem area to counter the unique security threats in that region.
With the onset of the Intifadas, the emergency squads became known for being the first to respond to some of the most shocking attacks in Israel's history, including the murder of the Fogel family in Samaria and the Worshippers' Route attack in Hebron. In these and other attacks, the emergency squads rushed to the point of contact with the terrorists and engaged them until regular IDF forces or Border Police officers arrived.
As part of the Disengagement from Gush Katif, all emergency squads in the Israeli towns in the Gaza Strip were disbanded and required to turn in their weapons.
Over the intervening years, these squads would become steadily more of a household name in Judea and Samaria in particular. They undertook both rapid response to terrorist threats and preventative actions such as lookouts and patrols for several towns. Other areas, such as the northern and southern borders, saw their emergency squads reduced and their allotments of long arms discontinued by the army, reportedly due to a significant trend of theft of firearms.
In 2017, the Knesset passed a series of regulations to formally govern the operation of such emergency squads along the Judea and Samaria border.
Swords Of Iron
During the October 7th massacre, town emergency squads engaged Hamas forces in more than twenty different towns throughout the Gaza region. With IDF forces nearby also under direct attack and confusion reigning in the security forces for several hours at the beginning of the attack, they faced far superior numbers and firepower without the prospect of reinforcements. Nevertheless, many such squads succeeded in repulsing at least the first waves of Hamas attacks. Several squad members in many towns were either killed in action or taken hostage, and many more were wounded. They nevertheless managed to drive off larger forces, disable Hamas vehicles, and give residents of the town time to take shelter or flee. Their heroism has drawn recognition from nearly all parts of Israeli society, including being honored with a dedicated torch for the town emergency squads on Israel's 76th Independence Day.
As one of the first lessons from the war, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and the Israel Police have been promoting a plan to establish approximately 700 new emergency squads throughout Israel, including in urban neighborhoods where they have previously not been considered necessary.
With the operations in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza, recent reports indicate that the IDF has been moving allotments away from border areas with large regular forces nearby, and stationing them in Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley instead.
Going Forward
These emergency response squads are likely to see significant expansion in the near future. Israel faces the need to secure its borders against the drastically shifted realities both in the north and south; in northern Israel in particular, the Defense Ministry has issued a large amount of new supplies to squads in northern Israel. Additionally, although considered friendly borders, the original issue of illegal infiltrators and smuggling along the Jordanian and Egyptian borders remains a security concern to this day, with newer and more advanced means such as drones - the IDF has recently brought down several drones carrying weaponry across the Egyptian border.
Defense Minister Israel Katz has also recently expressed significant concern regarding Iranian attempts to turn Judea and Samaria into another front against Israel, a situation that would put such squads at the forefront of another large-scale engagement.
The plan to establish hundreds of new squads in various cities is far from complete, and Minister Ben-Gvir made clear in a recent budget vote that he intends to continue pushing for such squads to be established and supplied even at risk of coalition discord. He has been joined by several regional governors calling for additional security equipment, each with a clear message to the government - town emergency squads are a critical security force, and must be kept fully prepared for each new challenge that arises.