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| '''Unit 101''' was an ]i special operations unit founded and led by ] on orders from ] ] in August 1953. It has drawn much criticism due to deaths of innocent civilians, in particular the ], which left almost 70 civilians dead. However, its decisive style of action developed in its later attacks against heavily-guarded military objectives became one of the fundamental cornerstones in the development of the ]. | |||
| === Activities === | |||
| Immediately after the foundation of Unit 101 in 1953, it began a series of routine operations, which at first included attacks upon civilians in Jordanian and Egyptian-controlled areas. On one of its first missions, the unit attacked the refugee camp in El-Bureij in Gaza Strip. The mission was aimed at Col. Mustafa Hafez, the chief of Egyptian intelligence in the Gaza Strip (and according to some, the Strip's de-facto ruler) who stood behind many of the early violent two months later, in October, a heavy shade was cast on the unit, following its ] into the village of Qibya, in the northern West Bank then a part of ]. The unit had received explicit orders to maximize casualties and up to 70 innocent civilians were killed. The mode of operation was similar to that of El-Bureig, but on a larger scale. | |||
| The widely condemned attack on Qibya made the Israeli leadership forbid the IDF to directly target innocent civilians in the future. By January ], the unit was disbanded and merged into the 202nd Paratroop Brigade. The unit existed independently five months, and three more years as a core inside the paratrooper brigade, before being disbanded after the ]. | |||
| Beginning with 1954, the unit's activities were mostly confined to military targets. In particular, up to 20 such attacks were carried out in 1955-1956, culminating in the Kalkiliya Police raid of October 1956 - a battle by a position of the Arab Legion in one of the old ] police forts, during which 18 Israeli soldiers died and up to a hundred Legioneers. | |||
| === Background and organization === | |||
| The background to the founding of Unit 101 was the ] into the young state of ] from its Arab neighbors. Although most of the infiltrators were refugees, looking after their own property they had been forced to abandon during the ], some chose to rob and kill Israelis. Israel's initial responses did not manage to contain this phenomenon. Although ]ian and initially ]ian authorities tried to comply with the cease-fire agreements, the decision was almost never carried out by troops on the ground. | |||
| As early as 1953, the Egyptian military intelligence was sending infiltrators into Israel; by 1955 this has become an open policy leading to the establishment of a fedayeen battalion. In spite of defensive arrangements, Israel was not able to block the infiltrations using such measures alone, but the IDF did not perform well in offensive operations. | |||
| After a series of unsuccessful raids, the Israeli government decided in summer 1953 on the creation of a ] unit, Israel's first. Reservist ] was called back to duty, given the rank of major and chosen to command the company-sized unit. One of the unit's tactical commanders was ], who was later awarded the rank of an officer solely for his conduct in battle. | |||
| Sources: | |||
| * "It was top secret" / Yosef Argaman p.19 | |||