Sayeret Matkal is Israel's elite special-forces reconnaissance unit, famous for the 1976 Operation Entebbe hostage rescue. Through 2005 the opening described the unit as having rescued "more than 100 Air France airline passengers hijacked to Uganda by PLO terrorists." Today's opening credits the unit generally with counterterrorism among its roles, but the description of the Entebbe hijackers as PLO terrorists is gone, though terror survives 12 times in the body. A reader today does not learn that the hijackers who forced the Entebbe rescue were identified as PLO terrorists.
Read line by line and written up by hand.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-01. “terror” appeared 2 times in this article's opening at its peak. Today the opening has none; the body has 12.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2005 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2005
Sayeret Matkal ( Hebrew : סיירת מטכ"ל - General Staff Reconnaissance unit) is the elite special forces unit of the Israeli Defence Force , established in 1957 .1Its main roles are counter terror , deep reconnaissance and intelligence gathering .2The unit is modelled on the British SAS , and organizationally reports to the IDF's Intelligence Branch ( A'man ). Its nickname in the IDF is simply "The Unit". It is best known for Operation Thunderbolt, mistakenly better known as Operation Entebbe , in which they rescued more than 100 Air France airline passengers hijacked to Uganda by PLO terrorists, losing the unit commander ( Yonathan Netanyahu ) to enemy gunfire.3
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 17757149.
The opening as it stood in 2010 2 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Military unit Sayeret Matkal ( , translation : General Staff Reconnaissance Unit) is an elite special forces unit of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).Its main roles are counter-terrorism , deep reconnaissance and intelligence gathering , but the unit is first and foremost a field intelligence-gathering unit, used to obtain strategic intelligence behind enemy lines.Sayeret Matkal is also in charge of hostage rescue missions outside Israeli borders.The unit is modeled on the British SAS , and organizationally reports to the Directorate of Military Intelligence .Its IDF nickname is simply "The Unit".Borrowed from the SAS, the unit's motto is " Who Dares Wins ." The unit is best known for Operation Thunderbolt, commonly known as Operation Entebbe , in which it rescued more than 100 Air France airline passengers hijacked and flown to Uganda by PLO militants, and killed 52 enemy combatants while losing only the assault element commander, Yonatan Netanyahu , and three hostages.Special: Entebbe's unsung hero - Israel News, Ynetnews
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 366827525.
The opening as it stood in 2015 7 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
First and foremost a field intelligence-gathering unit, conducting deep reconnaissance behind enemy lines to obtain strategic intelligence, Sayeret Matkal is also tasked with counter-terrorism and hostage rescue beyond Israel's borders.The unit is modeled after the British Army 's Special Air Service , taking the unit's motto " Who Dares Wins ".It is directly subordinate to the IDF's Directorate of Military Intelligence .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 668669466.
The opening as it stood in 2020
Military unit General Staff Reconnaissance Unit , or Unit 269 , more commonly known as Sayeret Matkal ( ), meaning Sayeret ( special reconnaissance unit) of the Matkal ( General Staff ), is the prime sayeret unit of the Israel Defense Forces . First and foremost a field intelligence-gathering unit, conducting deep reconnaissance behind enemy lines to obtain strategic intelligence, Sayeret Matkal is also tasked with counter-terrorism and hostage rescue beyond Israel's borders. The unit is modeled after the British Army 's Special Air Service , taking the unit's motto " Who Dares, Wins ". The unit is the Israeli equivalent of 1st SFOD-D (Delta Force) of the United States. It is directly subordinate to the IDF's Directorate of Military Intelligence .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 963369329.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023 3 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Israeli special forces unit Military unit General Staff Reconnaissance Unit (formerly Unit 269 or Unit 262 ), more commonly known as Sayeret Matkal ( ), is the special reconnaissance unit ( sayeret ) of Israel's General Staff ( matkal ).It is the tier 1 prime special forces unit of Israel .First and foremost a field intelligence-gathering unit, conducting deep reconnaissance behind enemy lines to obtain strategic intelligence, Sayeret Matkal is also tasked with black operation, clandestine operation, combat search and rescue, counterterrorism, hostage rescue, humint, irregular warfare, long-range penetration, manhunt, special operations, and special reconnaissance beyond Israel's borders. The unit is modeled after the British Army 's Special Air Service (SAS), taking the unit's motto " Who Dares Wins ". The unit is the Israeli equivalent of the SAS.It is directly subordinate to the Special Operations Division of the IDF's Military Intelligence Directorate .Israel Defense Forces . 31 May 2021 .The Jewish Virtual Library (American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise) ."סיירת מטכ"ל - יחידת העילית הבכירה של ישראל - הכל על היחידה" . אדרנלין (in Hebrew). 12 May 2021 .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1178174737.
The opening as it stood in 2025 2 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Israeli special forces unit Military unit Sayeret Matkal ( Hebrew : סיירת מטכ״ל ) (formerly Unit 269 or Unit 262 ) (English: General Staff Reconnaissance Unit ) is the special reconnaissance unit ( sayeret ) of Israel's General Staff ( matkal ).It is considered one of the premier special forces units of Israel .Though primarily a field intelligence-gathering unit, conducting deep reconnaissance behind enemy lines to obtain strategic intelligence, Sayeret Matkal is also tasked with a wide variety of special operations , including black operations , combat search and rescue , counterterrorism , hostage rescue , HUMINT , irregular warfare, long-range penetration, conducting manhunts, and reconnaissance beyond Israel's borders. The unit is modeled after the British Army 's Special Air Service (SAS), taking the unit's motto " Who Dares Wins ". The unit is the Israeli equivalent of the SAS. It is directly subordinate to the Special Operations Division of the IDF's Military Intelligence Directorate . Israel Defense Forces . 31 May 2021 . "סיירת מטכ"ל – יחידת העילית הבכירה של ישראל – הכל על היחידה" . אדרנלין (in Hebrew). 12 May 2021 .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1296431171. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
“terror” appeared 2 times in this article's opening at its peak. Today the opening has none; the body has 12. Read the current article and compare.
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Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined between 2005 and 2010.
Then
elite special forces unit of the israeli defence force
Now
elite special forces unit of the israel defence forces
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
