page_title: Israeli Combat Engineering Corps
section_title: Operation Protective Edge
hierarchical_section_title: Israeli Combat Engineering Corps / History / Operation Protective Edge
caption_attribution_description: IDF soldier overlooking a Hamas-built tunnel in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge
context_page_description: The Israeli Combat Engineering Corps is the combat engineering forces of the Israel Defense Forces.
  The Combat Engineering Corps beret's color is silver and its symbol features a sword on a defensive tower with an explosion halo on the background. The Combat Engineering Corps mottos are "Always First" and the unofficial "The hard, we shall do today; the impossible, we shall do tomorrow".
  Its roles include mobility assurance, road breaching, defense and fortifications, counter-mobility of enemy forces, construction and destruction under fire, sabotage, explosives, bomb disposal, counter-weapons of mass destruction and special engineering missions.
  In addition to Combat Engineering Corps sappers, each infantry brigade has an engineering company trained with basic engineering and explosive ordnance disposal skills. Combat Engineering Corps sappers and heavy equipment operators are often attached to other units in order to help them breach through obstacles and handle explosive threats.
context_section_description: During Operation Protective Edge (July–August 2014) Combat Engineers played a major role in destroying Hamas' cross-border underground infiltration tunnels. The tunnels were exposed and cleared by armored bulldozers and excavators, and then detonated by Yahalom's Samoor unit. In total, about 32 tunnels were destroyed. In addition, combat engineers participated in the battles, neutralized Hamas-planted improvised explosive devices, cleared booby-traps, opened routes for armor and infantry, and destroyed terrorist infrastructure. Six combat engineers were killed during the battles in the Gaza Strip.
caption: Combat engineer looking at a Hamas infiltration tunnel exposed by the IDF during Operation Protective Edge.
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image ExifOffset": "38", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "800", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "534"}