500 IDF commando soldiers participate in Cyprus military drill

Hundreds of Israeli soldiers trained for combat deep in enemy territory on the island nation of Cyprus over the past week, staging a large-scale war exercise on foreign soil — a first for the IDF’s Commando Brigade, according to its operations officer.

The nearly 500 Israeli soldiers that took part came mostly from the Commando Brigade, also known as the Oz Brigade, which was created in late 2015 in order to bring many of the military’s elite units under one roof. The Israeli Air Force also dispatched airplanes and helicopters for the drill, and representatives from a handful of other IDF units also took part.

The week-long drill was a general simulation of war, testing the abilities of the commandos in a variety of situations, according to the chief operations officer of the Commando Brigade, who for security reasons can only be referred to as “H.”

This was the Commando Brigade’s sixth unit-wide exercise, but the Cyprus drill was the first to be conducted in another country, H. tells The Times of Israel over the phone, in a cab en route to the Cyprus airport.

Approximately 100 Cypriot commandos also participated in the joint exercise.

The Israeli and Cypriot troops practiced urban warfare, above-ground and below-ground combat, fighting in dense brush, in mountainous areas, as well as airborne exercises, heliborne exercises, in the daytime, in the night time.

While H. and other Israeli personnel spoke glowingly of the exercise, according to local Cypriot media, the drill rankled both Turkey, which occupies northern Cyprus, and the country’s opposition party, which said that the military cooperation with Israel is “dangerous for Cyprus and for peace in the region.”

— Judah Ari Gross