Unit 101

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Unit 101 was an Israeli special operations unit founded and led by Ariel Sharon on orders from Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion in August 1953. It was created to retaliate against a spate of Palestinean violence against Israeli civilians. According to Sharon, Gurion told him that "the Palestinians must learn that they will pay a high price for Israeli lives". Its commander was major Sharon, his deputy in command was Shlomo Baum.

The most notorious incident was the Qibya massacre, which left 69 civilians dead.

Whatever the moral implications of its design, the tactic was remarkable effective politically because the terrorists simply could not keep up with the attrition. Thus attacks on Israel dropped off and the political objective of unit 101 was accomplished.

After this point, the unit shifted to a more military focus and spent the remainder of its existence attacking harder targets.

Unit 101 was disbanded in late 1955.

Activities

Immediately after the foundation of Unit 101 in 1953, it began a series of retaliatory operations targeting bases and villages which served as bases for the infiltrators. 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 infiltrations into Israel.

According to the local UN officer Vagn Bennike, hand grenades were thrown into houses while the inhabitants were sleeping, and those trying to escape were mowed down with machine guns.

Only two months later, in October, a heavy shadow was cast on the unit, following its raid into the village of Qibya, in the northern West Bank then a part of Jordan. Up to 70 innocent civilians were killed in this operation. 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 1954, the unit was disbanded and merged into the Paratroopers Brigade, and unit commander Ariel Sharon became the commander of the merged brigade. The unit existed independently five months, and three more years as a core inside the paratrooper brigade, before being disbanded after the 1956 Suez War.

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 British police forts, during which 18 Israeli soldiers and up to a hundred Legioneers died.

Background and organization

The background to the founding of Unit 101 was the Palestinian infiltration into the young state of Israel from its Arab neighbors during which hundreds of Israelis were murdered. Israel's initial responses did not manage to contain this phenomenon. Although Jordanian and initially Egyptian 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 special forces unit, Israel's first. Reservist Ariel Sharon 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 Meir Har-Zion, who was later awarded the rank of an officer solely for his conduct in battle.de:Einheit 101 fr:Unité 101 gl:Unidade 101 he:יחידה 101 sv:Enhet 101