Unit 101

Unit 101 was an Israeli commando terror force founded and led by Ariel Sharon on orders from Moshe Sharrett in 1953. The task of the unit was to carry out retaliation attacks on the Palestinian civilians as well as what they claimed was bases of terrorism. In 1953 the unit destroyed the village of Qibya, Jordan and killed 69 people, including women and children in response to a Jordanian raid on Tirat Yehuda. Following the international criticism of the raid, Unit 101 was disbanded and merged into the 202nd Paratroop Brigade. The paratroopers continued to carry out retaliatory attacks, but they were perhaps confined solely to military targets, culminating at the 1956 Kalkiliya Police raid (a position of the Jordanian army in one of the old British police forts).