The IDF is now running a cutting-edge “targeting cell” officers’ course, with The Jerusalem Post recently exclusively interviewing four officers in connection with it.
A “targeting cell” is a term that refers to a specific kind of command center that coordinates between parts of the IDF’s heavier power, from aircraft to drones to tanks to artillery to the navy, should the military attack a target.
The targeting cell unit reviews the latest multifaceted intelligence, receives and gives directions to ground forces nearby, evaluates risk to innocent civilians who are close by, and assesses the best kind of munition for the attack.
Notably, in the recent war in Gaza, a targeting cell also carried out an assessment regarding the likelihood of danger to Israeli hostages.
Speaking to IDF Lt.-Col. and course commander “R,” who has served in the IDF for 24 years and who has conducted two such courses, he said that “following a jump in the evolution of how war is fought, the training has to be unique, innovative, different, and cutting-edge.”
The dynamics of the war have taught new lessons and need to adapt
“This war has been a climax for new situations, variations, and learning, so we have accumulated tremendous lessons from the last three years, especially regarding new ways to work better and more rapidly when it comes to different arms of the military,” R said.
The need for this fresh course was emphatically operational.
According to R, “We need to inculcate the right approach from the start of officers’ training as a young officer. It is harder when someone comes from another area of the military. Part of this training involves working directly with other overlapping arms of the military from the very start of officer training.”
“Officers from our new training course will already ‘speak the language’ and already know how to work much more smoothly with other arms of the military when there is crossover,” he said.
In other words, until now, targeting cells were thrown together haphazardly on an ad hoc basis when needed.
The downside is that this sometimes meant that portions of the IDF personnel serving in the cell were less trained for aspects of the mission and had miscommunication issues when there was crossover work with non-ground forces arms of the military.
The ethics dimension
“The course teaches all of the issues related to war, ethics, and proper values. You need to avoid harming an innocent person [including Palestinians],” R said.
“Officers are trained to closely analyze these issues to understand all the specifics of the battlespace, including whether there are citizens [like Israeli hostages] nearby, in order to carry out complex missions. We specifically discussed hostage situations and the full spectrum of situations.”
Next, R was questioned about rising threats that soldiers, especially those involved in decisions like targeting, could face. These might include future International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants.
One way to address this, for instance, might be to generally prevent targeting cell members from flying overseas lest they be arrested or harassed in a variety of European and other countries.
It is important to note that over 120 countries are bound by the ICC’s arrest warrants, and some foreign countries conduct their own local efforts to arrest or harass Israeli soldiers.
“I don’t think we are worrying about them or their impact [in terms of] our future ability to fly overseas or not,” R replied. “In our operations, we focus on the good of the country and accomplishing the mission.”
“Our own values and ethics are the reasons we avoid harming innocent people. We do not worry about outsider standards. We follow our ethics and established IDF values,” R continued.
“We trust that the [Israeli legal] authorities and the IDF will protect us” from external prosecution when fulfilling military duties.
The lessons learned from field experience
Addressing experience in the field, R stated, “I was operational in a targeting cell in Gaza during the early months of the war. We helped multiple attack cells to elevate the ground forces’ performance level.”
“When you carry out operations, you need to make lots of quick and complex decisions,” R said. “Major challenges had to do with the proximity to our forces, where we were directing heavy fire, the speed with which we needed to assist them, and selecting which category of munition to use.”
All this, R continued, “while balancing, maximizing, and achieving the mission next to minimal collateral damage.”
Moreover, he said, “Connecting to the field on the front lines improved me a lot as an army educator.”
“I can compose drills that are much more precise and relevant. This really helps new cadets – they hear from someone speaking from firsthand experience in the battle space. It is easier to connect to that.”
A large part of the targeting cells’ new officer training course focuses on artificial intelligence.
R told the Post, “The enemy is changing its tactics rapidly, but we can change even faster by using AI to analyze the new enemy tactics and then by quickly coming up with a way to adapt.”
Using AI has also radically changed targeting cells’ ability to strike enemy forces at a much closer range than ever before.
Other IDF officials have told the Post about cases where they were able to strike Hamas terrorists with IDF troops only being 150-350 meters away.
These are close distances that would never have been approved in prior wars, out of concern that harm to friendly forces would have been unavoidable.
R would not address specific distances, but replied, “We need to be more precise than ever, and we have extensive processes to increase that precision.”
On officers, subcommanders in the course
Lt. “A” is a new graduate of the targeting cell officer program.
Prior to moving to the targeting cell officer track, she was a combat fighter, dating back to September 2023.
A then attended portions of the navy captain’s course before transferring to training with the Zik (the Elbit Hermes 450) drone system in the Artillery Corps in support of special forces, where she spent eight full months during her mandatory IDF service.
A told the Post, “If you didn’t come from this world or if you came from the world of drones, it is a different and significant challenge to learn a new role and to be tested on it, then succeed.”
“I needed to invest a lot of time and energy to make this change from 0 to 100,” she noted.
Next, A stated, “If you are being tested or look at a military situation merely on paper, you can figure out problems after the fact.”
“But when an operation is really happening, it is a different kind of challenge,” where after-the-fact salutations do not exist or it would be too late to adapt by then.
During the final set of drills to conclude the training period, “there were crazy scenarios that no one could really be fully ready for,” according to A.
Describing the drill in more detail, she said, “They try to construct an event that will push you beyond your comfort zone.”
For instance, “They wake you up suddenly for a middle-of-the-night emergency when you are tired and groggy. Even those who come from this world, if they are woken up suddenly to confront a hard dilemma, they find it challenging.”
“When you have a high-pressure situation and multiple challenges, you need to decide what to prioritize first,” she added.
A also told the Post, “It can be hard for a female soldier to have an impact in the field, so this is a great place to be able to do that, and we have new classified weapons.”
“During this existential war, more things have become open to women, and the best of them can get into new places,” she noted.
A is now on a 30-month minimum career track, designated to serve with the Gaza 143rd Division.
IDF Lt. “I” said that serving in the targeting cell was a change she made in order to be directly connected to the battlespace.
“Pretty quickly, I could already understand the lingo of what targeting cell people were saying, and I could already help, though I did need to fill in some holes of how to do certain aspects of the role,” “I” said.
“We helped soldiers who were formally more senior than us by rank, but they didn’t know the new systems as well,” she went on to say.
Moreover, “I” noted, “Twice I helped a senior commander. Now there are lots of reservists who come from a different time period and army experience, because our military has really changed.”
“With my background, I could explain to them more about drones, which are having new developments all the time,” she added.
Further, “I” said, “I also know more about using AI, which needs to be used as part of our well-oiled machine. Reservists are now fully trained to know how to perform all of the new AI actions and to use more precise language to form better and more efficient tools for the given situation.”
IDF Capt. “O” said that she “had already learned some of the targeting cell roles, and then I did supplemental training.”
According to O, she has been in the IDF since 2019. “I was in the air force at the crossover of coordination between the air force and the ground forces. I was a subcommander at the IDF Officers’ School at Bahad 1 and then went all in for the targeting cell, and I loved it.”
Discussing the background of the latest officer-cadets, she said that “most of this round of cadets come from mandatory service backgrounds, as opposed to other places where there is a mix of mandatory and reserve officers.”
“Running a course for supplementary targeting cell training has been my life project. How do we best build focal points and connections to multiply the value of our knowledge? Most people do not start with a targeting cell background,” O pointed out.
“So it is hard for them. But skills they learned in the Navy and the Air Force can be very useful if you think about them the right way,” she explained.
Continuing, she noted, “To lead the process, one session at a time, to hear how much Lt. A has learned, as she is now one of our leaders ... this course gave her new tools. I feel that all of the staff and I succeeded. It was an incredible and spellbinding project.”
In addition, O said, “Many of the officers who are joining might have left the IDF if they had not joined, because in their specific area, they did not necessarily have an obvious path to promotion.”
“But now, they can advance. Whether it is this round of cadets or the next, there is a lot to be proud of with this incredible progress.”