[3] Unlike many other Israeli Special Forces Units which take men only for their 36-month mandatory service, volunteers for Shayetet 13 must agree to serve at least four and a half years.

They were spotted and had to retreat, swimming back out to sea where an Israeli Navy torpedo boat picked them up and exchanged fire with a Lebanese patrol craft that intervened.

Shayetet 13 commandos infiltrated Port Said, but found no ships there, and during a raid into Alexandria, six divers were captured and taken prisoner, and released in January 1968.

Escort, nevertheless, allowed the IDF to carry out Operation Raviv, a highly successful 10-hour raid on Egypt's Red Sea coast.

[6] Operation Bardas 20 took place on January 14, 1971, to neutralize a guerrilla base in Lebanon, near Sidon, where about two dozen militants were training as frogmen.

[6] Shayetet 13, Unit 707, and Sayeret Tzanhanim commandos jointly raided guerrilla bases in Nahr al-Bared and Beddawi on February 19, 1973, in Operation Bardas 54–55.

[6] Shayetet 13 was also responsible for stopping ships that were ferrying weapons out of the country to Italy, including Yasser Arafat's personal boat.

[7] From the early 1980s the unit became increasingly involved in the Lebanon conflict, demonstrating an excellent track record of dozens of successful operations each year and inflicting heavy losses on Hezbollah in terms of casualties and equipment destroyed.

A rescue force of helicopters and missile boats arrived, joining in a battle that lasted until dawn as the rescuers evacuated the dead.

After 14 years, Hezbollah revealed that they knew the position of the commandos in advance thanks to the interception of video footage broadcast by Israeli UAVs that were hovering over the area in the days before the mission.

After the Mossad had established a diving resort on the Sudanese coast to serve a conduit for Jews fleeing Ethiopia, Shayetet 13 operatives would arrive on dinghies at night to ferry the refugees to an Israel Navy boat waiting offshore.

It earned high acclaim due to the successful capture of three Palestinian vessels which attempted to smuggle in weapons: Karine A, Santorini, Abu Hasan, and Abu-Yusuf.

An investigation found that the commandos had good reason to assume the guerrilla was concealing a grenade, and the unit was put back into action.

[29] On 4 November 2009, the Antiguan-flagged vessel MV Francop which had been carrying arms and munitions from Iran to Hezbollah was successfully boarded and taken over by Shayetet 13 commandos.

The commandos, armed with non-lethal weaponry and 9mm pistols as sidearms, roped down from helicopters and boarded from speedboats, and apprehended five ships with mostly passive resistance.

The commandos initially used non-lethal force, but after this proved ineffective, they opened fire with live ammunition and seized control of the ship.

On March 15, 2011, Shayetet 13 took part in "Operation Iron Law," conducted on the high seas against the Liberian-flagged, German-owned Victoria, a cargo vessel found to be carrying 50 tons of weapons which intelligence reports indicated had been consigned to Hamas.

[36] The IDF has stated that the ship's crew was unaware it was carrying weapons, as they were concealed in 39 of the 100 containers on deck beneath bags of Syrian lentils and cotton.

[44] Shayetet 13 commandos captured Muhammad Abu Ghali, the deputy commander of the southern division of Hamas' naval force, during the fighting.

[47] In December 2023, Shayetet 13 and the 401st Brigade raided a series of schools in Gaza City's Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, uncovering hundreds of weapons, as well as killing several militants and capturing dozens.

[51] In 2013, it was reported that Shayetet 13 commandos had installed espionage equipment on an island close to the Syrian city of Tartus which enabled Israel to monitor the Russian naval presence there.

[7] Retired Israeli Navy Colonel Mike Eldar said that "Israel can arrange an operation where it sends a team from Shayetet 13 to attach a mine to a ship, which can even be done at the port of destination or any other way station.

Shayetet 13 operates a summer course for teenagers about to enter military service considering joining the unit, who have the opportunity to get a taste of training in diving, raids, navigation, boats, and more.

Following a surprise mock kidnapping, they are held in prison-like conditions for two weeks, during which they subjected to threats, interrogation, and physical violence, and are forced to perform humiliating activities.

[61] Even after their induction into active service, Shayetet 13 commandos continue to take part in training exercises, and participate in cross-training with foreign special forces units such as the US Navy SEALs and other regional partners such as the Underwater Demolition Team (MYK).

[57][62][63][64] In 2000, the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Shayetet 13 veterans had an unusually high occurrence of cancer and other serious illnesses compared to the general population.

It was suspected that the cause was due to soldiers training in the heavily polluted Kishon River, which until the early 1990s was used by the unit for swimming and diving exercises.

The commission of inquiry failed to reach a firm conclusion and stated that it did not find statistical evidence that diving in the Kishon River caused cancer.

Over the following years, veterans who were not recognized as well as civilian fishermen who worked in and around the river repeatedly filed unsuccessful lawsuits against the government and the companies responsible for the pollution.

The probe found that pollution had indeed been responsible for the high rates of illness, concluding that the soldiers' exposure to toxic chemicals in the Kishon River was so extreme as to be "incomparable to any other case like it."