Maj. P., who heads the IDF's sniper division, has had plenty of nerve-wracking moments. Through her crosshairs, she's looked straight into the eyes of many of our enemies. These past few months, she has been involved in some of the ongoing clashes with Palestinian rioters at the Gaza border. But what really strained her nerves was a moment that didn't actually unfold, at least not how she expected it to.
"A few months ago, we received intelligence that the protesters were going to dress up as Holocaust survivors, with numbers on their arms. Seeing people like that in the crosshairs – I was worried it would be a major event that would affect the snipers. It was particularly brutal," she says.
"But what concerned me more was the soldiers – the situation they'd find themselves in. However you see it, it sears your soul. We had the commanders prepare them for it, and we were totally ready."
P. decided to place more mature, seasoned snipers – including reservists – at the relevant posts for the expected events. "But in the end, it was a very small event, and we handled it," she says.
For the past two and a half years, P.'s job has led her to get to know nearly all the IDF snipers personally. She is in charge of the section that identifies, tests and trains them until the end of their compulsory service, and sometimes as reservists. She knows exactly how many bullets were fired, when they were fired, and why.
"Essentially, we oversee every sniper from the moment he is trained until the time he is released, and by doing so ensure that every bullet is fired only when necessary. We have oversight from every direction," she stresses.
P. started her career as a sniper trainer, and later served in a number of different roles until she was promoted to her dream job, head of the snipers division. The snipers who train under her are divided into two groups – infantry, who come from different battalions, and counterterror, who mostly hail from special units. All snipers take a seven-week training course, and throughout their service attend special training sessions a few times a year to keep their skills honed.
"In many senses, a sniper is like a pilot: in the calm they need to exhibit, in their professionalism and responsibility, and also in the type of readiness – if you don't train enough, if you don't zero your weapon every morning, or if you don't maintain certain levels of ability, you're not ready. If snipers aren't familiar with the tiniest nuances, it just doesn't work," P. explains.
Amid the chaos
The training has proven itself in the field, especially in the recent months of confrontation with the mass riots on the Gaza border.
"Our snipers shoot in order to prevent [rioters] from entering Israel. It looks like we're meeting the needs of the operation. When 50,000 people rush the fence to enter [Israel] and don't make it, that's a success. Is it easy? It's not," she says.
Indeed, snipers and their spotters – who scan the field and identify targets – spend days sitting in dirt posts, facing the threat of counter-snipers. In effect, they are on the border, charged with stopping the threat. "Gaza has been giving us something different in terms of ongoing security [needs] these past few months," P. observes.
"Snipers are trained for war, but [on the border] their job isn't to kill; it's to prevent incursions into Israel. They do that job through a fence, with gas in their faces, surrounded by smoke, with masses rushing the fence and climbing on it, and amid all this chaos they are told: 'That's your target.' Now the sniper needs to decide when to fire, without hitting anyone else.
"In a lot of cases, you have a second to fire the bullet and another second to verify that it hit the intended target. Counterterror snipers, for example, also need to fire accurately. There's no room for error; every one of your bullets brings down an incident, solves it, or changes the situation completely."
These abilities are the foundation of the characteristics that make a sniper and are weighed during the process of identifying potential talents. They are also evaluated over the course of snipers' operational activity.
"The demands on a sniper are a little different than the demands of a combat soldier who works on 'auto-pilot.' We're talking mainly about calm and control. We've seen it a lot in the past four or five months. Checking whether a target is legitimate, for example, is the responsibility of the sniper.
"However, the person who makes the decision about whether or not to fire is the commander, the battalion leader or brigade leader. But the moment there is a green light, there are cases – a lot of cases, by the way – when if a sniper isn't 'on' and isn't sure he'll hit the target, he says, 'I'm not firing.' That's legitimate, and that's what we look for in a sniper."
Q: Are a lot of recruits dropped from the sniper course?
"This past year, I've dropped a lot of people. Anyone who isn't a good fit … is out. It's enough that a sniper doesn't make it to morning roll call twice or fired at the wrong time at the shooting range. We don't play games. A lot of people are cut because of behavior or mentality, but when it comes to technical ability, we fight to keep them."
Q: What mental attributes make snipers special?
"The snipers' mentality is something that is always with them, everywhere they are. When it comes to that, the commanders have a lot of responsibility for the soldiers' mindset, because in the end, you are given a mission and responsibility by the commander, and they process the incidents with them. Commanders today invest a lot in snipers. They are aware of their abilities and work and are alongside them in the outpost.
"At one point, in light of recent events [in Gaza], the division commander sat down with the snipers and walked them through their mission, showing them the data from the operation. It did a lot for them. They had a compass, they understood what they were doing," P. says.
Head of the IDF's clinical mental health branch Col. Dr. Ariel Ben-Yehuda backs up Maj. P.
"The mental health of a professional, well-trained soldier is improved by understanding the principle of what he is doing. I think that the [mental and emotional] preparations for snipers, which are conducted by professionals from the field, are the really important part," Ben-Yehuda says.
'Lives were in danger'
The case of Lt. A. illustrates the importance of mentally preparing snipers. A. has been on duty as a sniper for six months and oversees the sniper aspect of the army's counter-terror activity.
During the border riots, A. commanded a sniper outpost. "Our activity there was mainly [dealing with] several thousand people getting very close to the border fence, and there were always some of them who were trying to get to the fence, burn it down, throw bombs, and even breach it."
A. says that after Land Day [March 30], "We were at the Karni Crossing and spotted a breach. The protest was about 200 meters [650 feet] south of us, and we saw rioters who were jumping [over] and digging a ditch to get to us. They broke through the fence, shook it, and suddenly rushed at us. We couldn't stop it, the only thing that separated us from them was the high wall of the Karni Crossing.
"They were on a crazy adrenalin high. Lives were in danger. We took aim at their knees and below, and we fulfilled the mission. The protest, which involved thousands of people, moved toward us, and if we hadn't hit the people who arrived first, everyone would have gotten to the wall. It was very stressful for us, but in the end, six precise shots were enough to stop it. Six people were wounded. That's an incident that ended successfully," A. says.
Q: Is the impact of the shot immediate?
"Right away, you can see [them] fall back. That's significant. Generally, the friends next to the main inciter will run backward when he falls or is limping and help him to an ambulance. Eventually, they come back to test you. If you're not aggressive and don't keep them away from the fence, they'll eventually breach it. After firing a shot, you can see that they're afraid to approach."
Q: How do you feel just before shooting, while shooting, and just after?
"You see angry people, and it's bizarre. The first time I was kind of in shock at the level of anger and adrenaline among the people on the other side. You look through the sights and eventually you realize that what you're doing is super-important, and you're not doing it for no reason. There is a purpose to what you're doing.
"While firing, there is a feeling of [being in] a bubble, of detachment. You're ready for what needs to be done, and that's because of the preparation that came earlier and because of the important mission.
"After firing, you sometimes see a person limping or falling down. You're aware of it. That same moment, you can't get lost in thought, and you need to concentrate on what's happening around you, because otherwise, you could get hurt.
"On one hand," A. adds, "you don't enjoy what's taking place. Anyone who says he does it and is completely fine with it is lying. On the other hand, we remind ourselves that our goal is to protect the country. You're not thrilled, but there is a sense of relief that you've done the work properly and helped out."
Q: How do you fire the best possible shot after hours on watch?
"It's important for soldiers to practice, to simulate a situation where we … drill incidents, and sharpen our concentration so as not to get complacent. It gives us an adrenaline boost for a while."
Maj. P. adds: "Along with the fact that the sniper works with a spotter, there is a framework that allows the snipers time to regroup so they can stand the long hours on watch."
Q: What happens when you miss?
"There's a certain sense of having failed, it creates a sense of disappointment, that you didn't do what you were supposed to. It happens, and you need to continue the mission. In general, you don't have a chance to fix the mistake, either, because the target starts to move, goes farther away, or takes cover behind other people," A. says.
Restraint makes all the difference
Lt. A. also touches on the death of Givati Brigade soldier Staff Sgt. Aviv Levi, who was killed by a Hamas sniper in an incident that left another officer wounded, and points out that there is always concern about snipers on the other side, as well as shots fired at close range. "The sniper positions are always fortified," he says.
A. qualifies his remarks and says, "If we really wanted to, there are ways of identifying [enemy] snipers. Actually, it's not so much the snipers who need to be careful, it's the ground forces. In the end, it wasn't snipers who were hit by that sniper fire. But yeah – sniper fire in Gaza has really sharpened the operational perception of our snipers, what they look for and check. The realization that they are under a real threat all the time has totally changed their thinking."
"We had a number of incidents in which [the enemy] fired at sniper positions with Kalashnikov [AK-47] rifles and M-16s. Our forces returned fire from 300-400 meters [1,000-1,300 feet] away, and put a stop to these incidents very quickly."
Lt. Col. Liron Aroch, who is in charge of the Southern Command's training base where, among other things, snipers undergo training for active duty on the Gaza border, explains that facilities have been constructed to simulate the challenges that snipers face.
"We used a section of fence, we burned tires, we created a situation in which shots are fired under cover of smoke. We built small targets that simulate concentrated pockets of shots aimed at small targets, which characterize the challenge of the Gaza border."
Aroch explains that the training mainly focused on the ability to hit individuals involved in terrorist activity or other hostile operatives in a crowd. Mental training scenarios were put together in conjunction with army psychologists from the Southern Command. Aroch says that the training included role-playing scenarios requiring "the ability to employ restraint and make decisions under pressure," as well as conversations with commanders that probed the emotional aspects of a sniper's job to better enable them to support their snipers and answer all their questions.
"Another thing we worked on was the understanding that snipers are exposed to a major threat, and that their groups are alone on the front, even though behind them there is a very strong contingent of forces, and that on the other side there are thousands of people who want to damage the fence and attack [the Israelis] who live there. … [It] turned out to be a complex mental challenge for the snipers.
"We also worked on understanding and observing orders to open fire, and we simulated dealing with [those orders] when women and children are taking part in the riots or taking part in terrorist activity. Another thing we worked on had to do with the restraint demanded of a sniper, and the ability to tell when to shoot and when not to – if, for example, he can't carry out a precise hit without endangering other people whom we don't want to shoot. All these issues were raised in lessons compiled by the clinical mental health branch."
Aruch, who has spent most of his career in the Givati Brigade, has commanded snipers and internalized the importance of preparing them for various dilemmas.
"I learned how the other side exploits civilians, including women and children, as human shields to handle the threat of our snipers. We had a lot of incidents in which terrorists who wanted to flee the battlefield would snatch a civilian and run away with them, and even ran carrying kids who served as human shields.
"In the end, restraint and understanding the open-fire orders are what make all the difference," Aroch says. He uses as an example an incident from an operation in Beit Hanoun.
"One of our snipers spotted a group of women walking and noticed that some of them seemed to be in disguise. … One of them had something that appeared to be a weapon."
Aroch explains that no permission to fire was given, because the target was uncertain. But it turned out that in fact terrorists dressed as women had mingled with a group of women whom the army had allowed to move to a safe place.
Emotional fitness
The mental and emotional preparation stays relevant after the snipers complete their military service.
Maj. P. explains that "any person who shoots to wound or kill, no matter whether it's through a sniper's sights or with any other weapon, is scarred. There's no magical formula for the soul. You don't always know what's going on inside someone's head, how they're processing it."
"The mental preparation they do before an operation is part of it. Commanders also do 'closure' with their soldiers at the end of every day, they talk with them and air things out. Can I say I expect everyone to get out without any emotional scarring? I doubt it," she says.
Q: Do you see it as embarrassing to see an army psychologist?
"Not only is it not embarrassing, we encourage it. … Today, [the psychologist] initiates visits, starts conversations, understands problem points, and people come and talk. For today's generation, it's acceptable to see a psychologist, a psychiatrist, and we don't dismiss it.
"Today, people in general and soldiers in particular are less afraid of talking about their difficulties or about needing professional mental health treatment," says Ben-Yehuda. "Soldiers feel much more comfortable reaching out for help.
"In the past, there was a big stigma around going to an army psychologist. … Today, we're in a different place. The number of army psychologists and visits to army psychologists is on the rise, and we encourage it. The way we see it, every soldier who goes to the psychologist, even if they're told that what they're experiencing is natural, is a great achievement, just by virtue of the fact that they sought help and were listened to."
