The "LOTAR Otef" (Anti-Terror envelope) unit will consist of troops who previously served in special forces and live in the Gaza border towns.
Reservists of the Israel Defense Forces' new "LOTAR Otef" counterterror force during a ceremony for the unit's establishment, June 3, 2024.
(June 5, 2024 / JNS) Days after its official inauguration, hundreds of Israel Defense Forces reservists have already volunteered to serve in a new elite counterterror unit created to protect Gaza border towns, the army said on Wednesday.
The unit, known as “LOTAR Otef”—the latter word being the Hebrew term for the Gaza envelope—was incorporated on Monday in the IDF’s 143rd (Gaza) Division as part of “learning the lessons that have emerged from the initial investigations into the events of Oct. 7,” the army announced.