Details emerge of IDF elite unit’s daring rescue mission in Gaza

Operatives from the Israeli military’s elite 669 special rescue unit and IDF medics carried out a daring rescue mission under fire that took place in Khan Younis, Gaza on Dec. 16, 2023. Footage from their life and death mission was captured by the operatives’ helmet cameras and later used for an internal military investigation of the dangerous incident in Gaza. 

“I want to say something,” Capt. (res.) said 28-year-old Alon Hindi who was among the soldiers rescued under fire in Gaza. 

“My twin brother, who enlisted with me into the Paratroopers, was supposed to get married last summer, but they postponed the wedding because I was wounded,” he revealed. 

Hindi articulated appreciation for the air crew that saved his life. 

“I’m not sure the wedding would have happened. And if it had, it wouldn’t have been a real celebration. For you the evacuation took 20 minutes. For us those were the 20 most important minutes of our lives," he explained.

Eyal Cohen, a 42-year-old IDF reservist who is married and father of four daughters, was severely wounded when he was rescued in Gaza. He was deeply affected by the raw footage from the rescue mission that ultimately saved his life. 

“I’m in shock,” Eyal said. “It makes me realize even more how close I was… to dying. I see everyone’s devotion there; my friends in the company and battalion, the evacuation team, the helicopter crew. Without you, my daughters might have lost their father. I am deeply grateful," he said. 

Dvir Dangur, a 26-year-old soldier from Herzliya who was also rescued during the mission, expressed his gratitude for being alive. 

“We are all deeply grateful,” Dangur said. “The fact that each of us still has all four limbs is no small thing, let alone being alive. We just saw Eyal’s condition in the video. If you had arrived a few minutes later, I’m not sure he’d be sitting here today. Watching the video for the first time, it’s crazy."

Despite risking his own life during the mission, Pilot P displayed modesty and praised the wounded combat soldiers that were rescued during the mission. 

“I just want to say that we and you, the wounded, are not the same,” he assessed. 

“In the end there are three people here who paid a heavy price. We only helped them get to the hospital. With all due respect to us, they are the real heroes," Pilot P. argued.

Dr. N., who participated in the mission, recalled the dramatic contrast between the war in Gaza and normal life in Israel. 

“You finish a shift with 669, having evacuated and treated wounded from Gaza midair in a helicopter, and the next day you’re back in the ER with a woman who came in at 3:00 a.m. with a headache. It took me quite a while to adjust to that dissonance. In the first months of the war, I was more short-tempered, far less pleasant to people. Now I’m finally able to separate the two," Dr. N. said. 

Dangur recalled the traumatic realization that his close friend, Shalev Zaltsman, was killed during the mission. 

“When I woke up at Soroka two and a half days after the injury, the first thing I asked was what happened to Shalev Zaltsman from my team,” he said. “He was next to me when the blast went off, and I sensed he wasn’t doing well,” he continued. 

"Only the third time I screamed in intensive care, ‘Give me my phone, I need to know what happened to my team,’ a hospital psychologist came over. She told me there were 14 wounded, 10 from my squad and four from the company command post. Alon, Eyal and another seriously wounded soldier were also at Soroka. Then she told me Shalev had been killed. I felt so angry; how did we lose such a pure soul? It was very, very hard to accept," he explained.

Dr. N. revealed more details from the rescue mission. 

“That day, I evacuated and treated 21 wounded,” he said. “The peak was eight wounded from the Nahal Reconnaissance Unit, all crammed into one Black Hawk. We had to remove them from their stretchers and squeeze them into the helicopter." 

Despite their modesty, the Israeli special mission rescue operatives risk their lives while seeking to save the lives of their fellow soldiers. 

In September 2024, two Israeli soldiers were killed, and six were injured when a helicopter from IDF Special Tactics Rescue Unit 669 crashed in southern Gaza. 

“Overnight, an Israeli Air Force ‘Yanshuf’ helicopter, which was on a mission to evacuate an injured soldier to a hospital for medical treatment, crashed while landing in the Rafah area in the Gaza Strip,” the IDF stated at the time.