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2019-04-12 Israel-Palestine-Jordan
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IDF human intelligence unit earns commendation for thwarting terrorists in north
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 [IsraelTimes] Unit 504, which employs agents beyond Israel’s borders, is said to have ’established a significant and dominant capability’ that prevented attacks
Israeli Military Intelligence’s Unit 504, which employs agents beyond Israel’s borders, received official commendation this week for its activities in the "northern arena" over the past five years, which the army said "prevented terror attacks and neutralized threats that endangered the State of Israel."
The specific activities of the highly secretive unit in the northern arena ‐ the army’s term for Leb and Syria ‐ that earned it the citation were not released.
There are four levels of military citations. Unit 504 received the second highest, one presented by a major general, in this case the head of Military Intelligence Maj. Gen. Tamir Hyman.
The soldiers and officers who make up Unit 504 operate agents in foreign countries and within the West Bank and Gazoo Strip, who provide intelligence that is analyzed within the Military Intelligence Directorate.
"From 2013 to 2018, the unit received the mission of foiling terrorism and interfering with the entrenchment of terrorist figures in the northern arena. With determination and by spotting intelligence and operational opportunities, the unit established a significant and dominant capability," the army said.
"This led to exceptional achievements in the area of operation... which contributed to the superiority of the Israel Defense Forces and to the security of the State of Israel," the military added.
In his speech, Hyman praised the human intelligence unit for gathering "sources who could shed light on the situation taking place in the region and describe the complicated reality."
Col. "Resh" ‐ for security reasons he can only be identified by his rank and first Hebrew letter of his name ‐ thanked Hyman for the award and vowed to continue Unit 504’s work.
"It is clear to me and to the other commanders of this unit that the command inherent in this citation is the continuation of our high-quality, creative and tricky intelligence efforts at the highest level in order to support the IDF and Military Intelligence complete its missions," Resh said.
In recent years, Israel has been fighting a larger quiet war against Iran and its proxies in Syria in order to prevent them from establishing a permanent military base on Israel’s northern border.
Since late last year, the IDF has indicated that its efforts have been reasonably successful in driving back the pro-Iranian forces from the Syrian border.
In Leb, the Israeli military has also been working to counter the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist group. In December, Israel launched "Operation Northern Shield," an effort to locate and destroy attack tunnels dug by the group from southern Leb into Israeli territory. The IDF acknowledged destroying six of these underground passages before declaring the operation successfully completed.
Decades before ‘Fauda,’ Israel’s first spies assumed Arab identities in Beirut
[IsraelTimes] April 1948. As thousands of Palestinian Arabs fled Haifa, embedded within that group were a few undercover Jewish men. These Arabic-speaking Jews, born in Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq, were members of the Haganah’s fledgling spy unit, the Arab Section. Sent to gather information from within the Arab world, they assumed the identities of Palestinian refugees and set up new lives in Beirut.
They were dispatched with few instructions, and even fewer means, into a world in which conjugating a verb wrong could get them killed, said writer Matti Friedman in an onstage interview on Wednesday in Jerusalem. The lucky ones survived through bluffing and disguise; half were killed.
All that was missing was a Hollywood soundtrack as Friedman depicted snippets from the spies’ adventures, vividly painted scenes of life and death spun on a thread. The real-life anecdotes made hit modern-day spy thriller “Fauda” seem contrived.
Friedman spoke with journalist Matthew Kalman in a joint Times of Israel and Beit Avi Chai event to launch his newest book, “Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel.” 
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Posted by trailing wife 2019-04-12 00:00||
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