Composed of some 100 highly specialized divers, Yaltam serves as the supreme professional authority for deep-sea engineering, rescue operations, and underwater sabotage neutralization.
By Hezy Laing
The Israeli Navy Unit for Underwater Missions, universally known by its Hebrew acronym Yaltam, operates alongside the Combat Engineering Corps elite Yahalom unit to provide 24/7 surveillance, defense, and infiltration counter-measures across Israel’s critical coastal waters.
Composed of fewer than 100 highly specialized divers, Yaltam serves as the supreme professional authority for deep-sea engineering, rescue operations, and underwater sabotage neutralization.
The modern unit traces its history back to 1963, when it was originally formed as Unit 707 to handle specialized defensive diving operations that fell outside the offensive scope of the naval commandos.
Following a brief merger with the elite commando unit Shayetet 13 in 1976, Israeli leadership permanently re-established Yaltam as an independent, specialized force in 1981 to confront the growing threat of underwater explosive devices and hostile frogmen attempting to compromise maritime sovereignty.
Throughout its storied operational history, Yaltam has achieved monumental successes that saved countless civilian and military lives.
During the high-stakes days of the Yom Kippur War, unit operators famously braved intense enemy fire to cross the Suez Canal, executing complex diving rescues to save wounded soldiers trapped in waterlogged combat zones.
In recent cross-border escalations, Yaltam deployed its elite two combat companies to thwart multi-pronged maritime incursions off the southern coast.
Working under extreme depths and low visibility, the unit successfully located, cataloged, and neutralized dozens of submerged terrorist assets.
In one major operation, Yaltam scuba teams thoroughly scanned the seabed to recover sunken rubber dinghies, explosive belts, weapons, and complex aquatic sabotage charges left behind by retreating hostile divers.
Partnering with Yahalom explosives experts, Yaltam safely transported these lethal munitions back to the shore for controlled detonation, effectively neutralizing an invisible underwater threat.
Today, under rigorous year-long diving regimens and advanced training alongside missile boat crews and the submarine fleet, Yaltam remains Israel’s invisible shield against maritime terror.
