Unit 101

Members of the 890 battalion, into which unit 101 was incorporated, and forerunner of the Sajeret Matkal (1955). In the middle Moshe Dayan (with eye patch), the chief of staff of the armed forces and later foreign minister.

The unit 101 (Hebrew יחידה 101; Yechida 101 ) was an elite unit of the Israel Defense Forces , which in August 1953, Ariel Sharon was set up.

The unit consisted of forty to fifty specially trained soldiers and carried out " search and destroy " operations against enemy targets in neighboring Arab states. In addition, retaliatory actions were also carried out.

Qibya massacre

Location of the place Qibya in Cisjordan near Jehud

On October 12, 1953, an unarmed Jewish mother and her two children were killed in an attack by Jordanian intruders in the Israeli city of Yehud . The Israeli government decided to retaliate against the village of Qibya in the West Bank , which was then annexed by Jordan in violation of international law , near the Green Line to Israel. 69 Arabs , including 42 villagers, were killed, 45 houses, a school and a mosque were destroyed.

This retaliatory operation, known as the " Qibya Massacre ", led to a drastic decline in Palestinian attacks on Israel , but was also heavily criticized internationally. Whether or not the Israeli forces had given the residents an evacuation order to spare their lives or not is extremely controversial.

Because of this action, the independence of unit 101 was canceled in January 1954. It was the paratroopers - Battalion integrated 890 and continued to take the 202nd retaliation attacks against military targets as part Paratroopers Brigade in part.

literature

• Schmuel Katz : Israeli Elite Units since 1948. Elite Series Volume 18, Osprey Publishing, Oxford 1988, pp. 9f.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Benny Morris : Israel's Border Wars 1949–1956: Arab Infiltration, Israeli Retaliation, and the Countdown to the Suez War. Oxford University Press , 1993, pp. 258f.