The U.S. has dispatched several dozen additional special operations personnel to Israel to assist with the Israeli military’s hostage recovery efforts, The New York Times reported, citing officials.
U.S. special operations commandos on the ground in Israel are not in a combat role, but offering a number of capabilities to the Israel Defense Forces, including hostage rescue, Christopher Maier, the Pentagon’s top civilian official for special operations policy, said at a conference Tuesday, according to the NYT. He declined to say how many troops were in Israel, but teams of at least several dozen special operations personnel arrived in addition to the known squad that was already in Israel at the beginning of the war, the NYT reported, citing U.S. officials.
“We’re actively helping the Israelis to do a number of things,” Maier, an assistant secretary of defense, said at the conference, according to the NYT. Their primary mission is to “identify hostages, including American hostages. It’s really our responsibility to do so,” he added. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Biden White House’s Media Gaffe Could Put Operators’ Lives ‘In Danger,’ Special Operations Group Says)
Fewer than 10 of the hostages Hamas took into captivity on Oct. 7 are Americans, the White House said Monday. Israel’s military estimates that the terrorist group is holding at least 240 civilians hostage.
Additional special operations forces will join advisers from the FBI and State Department, along with other hostage recovery experts, to advise Israeli counterparts, the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the NYT.
Early in the war, the Pentagon sent a separate team of Special Operations Forces to Israel to provide intelligence and planning support for Israeli hostage rescuers, the NYT previously reported.
U.S. military specialists are advising “what is going to be a very complex fight going forward” in Gaza, Maier said, according to the NYT.
Special forces “are there supporting the advice and intelligence support as it relates to hostage recovery,” Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said Tuesday at a press briefing.
Lots of great discussion at #SOLIC2023 focused on strengthening deterrence, #SOF force design for the future, and the importance of the cognitive domain. Underpinning it all is the first SOF Truth: humans are more important than hardware @NDIAToday pic.twitter.com/uUOkKbCV2L
— HON Chris Maier (@ASD_SOLIC) October 31, 2023
“We have people on the ground that have a small cell, a liaison cell, that has established contact” with Israeli special operators, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin confirmed on Oct. 10. “We’ll continue to help with intelligence and planning as things go along,” he added.
“I offered our assistance, our special operators, the help our special operators, our intelligence community in planning and developing intelligence to help in this endeavor,” he said.
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