IDF Caterpillar D9

The IDF Caterpillar D9 — nicknamed Doobi (Hebrew: דובי, for teddy bear) — is a Caterpillar D9 armored bulldozer used by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). It is supplied by Caterpillar Inc. and modified by the Israel Defense Forces, Israeli Military Industries and Israel Aerospace Industries to increase the survivability of the bulldozer in hostile environments and enable it to withstand attack.

In the 1980s the IDF began modifying D9 bulldozers to incorporate armour. The bulldozers can also be fitted with weaponry: machine guns and grenade launchers. There are various models, including a remote controlled version.

Over the course of numerous campaigns, IDF bulldozers have been used to demolish thousands of Palestinian homes in Gaza, leaving tens of thousands of people homeless. This is a deliberate act of punitive destruction on behalf of the IDF, ostensibly to punish the families of those accused of terrorism, which may be considered a war crime from the view of the Human Rights Watch.^[1] The Office of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights has advised Caterpillar Inc. that by supplying the bulldozers to the IDF it may be complicit in human rights violations.

The IDF Caterpillar D9 has been used to cause civilian deaths, such as the killing of activist Rachel Corrie in 2003 or civilians sheltering outside the Kamal Adwan Hospital during the 2023 Israel–Hamas war.^[2][3] The IDF Caterpillar D9 is operated by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Combat Engineering Corps for combat engineering and counter-terrorism operations.