Founding and initial organization As the end of the
British Mandate of Palestine was fast approaching, the leadership of the
Haganah drafted
Plan Dalet for its subsequent organization and operations. The plan divided the fighting militia (
Field Corps) into six regional brigades – Levanoni in the north,
Alexandroni in the Sharon region,
Kiryati in the
Tel Aviv area,
Givati in the
Shfela, and
Etzioni in the
Jerusalem area. On February 28, 1948, the Levanoni Brigade was split into two—
Carmeli in the northwest, and Golani in the northeast. In mid-1948, replaced Mann. In the introduction to the book
Ilan VeShalach, Nahum Golan wrote regarding the Golani Brigade:
War of Independence , 1949 During the
1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine, Golani mostly participated in the battles for the mixed cities in the north, such as the
Battle of Tiberias and battles in
Safed in April–May 1948. The 12th Battalion captured
al-Shajara on May 6, 1948, and the 13th Battalion captured
Beit She'an on May 12. and helped capture
Nazareth and eventually Lubya in
Operation Dekel. The mission was a resounding success, although there were three hostages killed as well as Lieutenant Colonel
Yonatan Netanyahu, the commander of
Sayeret Matkal who spearheaded the attack.
Yom Kippur War Like the rest of the IDF, the Golani Brigade was caught by surprise with the first Arab attack of the
Yom Kippur War. The brigade's sector in the
Golan Heights was lightly manned, and most of its units were either on leave or preparing for a planned major ceremony. The Syrians attacked in three major locations: near Khushniya,
Quneitra and
Mas'ada. The 13th Battalion's position on
Mount Hermon was
overrun on October 6–7, 1973. Eight soldiers and commanders from the 51st battalion were killed.
2007–2022 at a military drill conducted by the Barak Battalion in northern Israel, 2011 The Golani Brigade participated in
Operation Cast Lead. On January 5, 2009, Golani soldiers Maj. Dagan Wartman (32), Staff Sgt. Nitai Stern (21), and Cpl. Yousef Muadi (19) were killed in
northern Gaza in a friendly fire incident when a tank accidentally fired a live round at an abandoned building in
Jabalya in which Golani forces were taking cover. Three other soldiers were severely wounded and twenty more had minor injuries. At 1:05 a.m. on July 20, 2014, during
Operation Protective Edge, seven Golani soldiers from the 13th Battalion were killed in the
Battle of Shuja'iyya when an
M113 armoured personnel carrier they were being transported in caught fire after an explosive device was set off under it. Reportedly, the APC was not fitted with armor that can withstand this type of blast. At 1:30 a.m., a soldier was killed when two soldiers got into a firefight with terrorists. At 5:45 a.m., another Golani force got into a firefight with terrorists. Two soldiers were killed. At 8:50 a.m., three soldiers were killed when a Golani squad was caught inside a burning building, for a total of thirteen Golani soldiers killed in action that morning. with soldiers of the Golani Brigade in September 2022 The commander of the Golani Brigade, Colonel
Ghassan Alian, the first non-Jewish commander of the brigade and the highest ranking
Druze in the IDF, was lightly injured in his eye in an exchange of fire, and later returned to his soldiers after being treated.
Gaza war The Golani Brigade's 13th and 51st Battalions suffered heavy casualties during the
October 7 attacks in October 2023. According to the IDF, at least 72 of the brigade's soldiers were killed and an unknown number captured while defending the
Gaza–Israel barrier. This was by far the highest number of fatalities for any single unit in the IDF during the offensive. Golani soldiers were underequipped and overstretched all along the border and were not able to repel the militants on the first line of military bases and
kibbutzim that they assigned numerous platoons to defend. Each separate platoon had believed that their specific base or kibbutz was the main point of fighting and it took many hours for them to learn that Hamas had entered through everywhere at 29 points on the Gaza barrier and had reached the second and third lines of the IDF's defenses. This prevented the Golani soldiers from being able to retreat and organize all units and fight back effectively. They had received no intelligence from anybody that Hamas was going to enter through the Iron Wall and were caught completely by surprise. Golani soldiers were completely overwhelmed at all the first line military bases, especially at
Nahal Oz and
Re'im. The Hamas fighters outnumbered them and were able to defeat these Iron Wall bases with infantry tactics while using RPGs and
Toyota pickup trucks and motorcycles for ground vehicles. The 13th Battalion suffered 41 killed, which was more fatalities than it suffered in the Six-Day War and Yom Kippur War combined, and 91 wounded. Its headquarters were at the military base at Nahal Oz, and that was where many of the Golani soldiers were killed. On December 12, 2023, seven Golani Brigade soldiers were killed in a booby-trapped building and subsequent ambush during the
Siege of Gaza City. Most of the fatalities were high-ranking officers like Colonel
Yitzhak Ben-Bashat, commander of the Golani Brigade's forward command team, and Lieutenant Colonel Tomer Grinberg, the commander of the 13th Battalion who had fought in the
battles around Nahal Oz in Israel two months earlier. Ben-Basat was the highest-ranking IDF soldier killed during the
Israeli invasion of Gaza. On October 3, 2024, the
Islamic Resistance in Iraq launched a kamikaze drone attack on a military base in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, killing two soldiers and injuring 24 others of the Golani Brigade's 13th Battalion. On March 23, 2025, soldiers from the Golani Brigade opened fire at humanitarian convoys and
killed 15 Palestinian paramedics in Rafah. After an IDF investigation of the massacre, the deputy commander of the brigade was dismissed for "providing an incomplete and inaccurate report". An inquiry by the IDF determined that troops from the Golani Brigade had reported a camera which Israel claimed was the basis for the
2025 Nasser Hospital strikes. ==Insignia==