Mobile units (Haganah unit)
The Mobile units "Nomads" or "Wanderers" (Hebrew: הנודדות, translit. Ha-Nodedot) was a detachment of the Haganah Jewish self-defense force in Mandate Palestine set up during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine as a mobile field-intelligence corps.[1] The purpose of the Nodedot was to locate and defeat organised Arab resistance groups before they achieved operational capability.[1] They were developed by the Haganah into an élite force.[2] It is said that the Arabs feared them greatly.[2]
The detachment was formed on the inspiration of Yitzhak Sadeh, a former officer in the Russian Army and a senior leader in the Haganah, as small night patrols capable of ambushing Arab rebels operating in the area of Jewish settlements.[3]
As the Arab Revolt intensified Sadeh used the tactics he had developed with the Nodedot to establish a permanently mobilized force with regional commands called the Fosh and a joint unit with the British Army called the Special Night Squads.[3]
Notes
References
- Katz, Sam (1988). Israeli Units Since 1948. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 0-85045-837-4
- Oring, Elliot (1981). Israeli Humor: The Content and Structure of the Chizbat of the Palmah. SUNY Press. ISBN 978-0-87395-512-6
- Pedahzur, Ami (2009). The Israeli Secret Services and the Struggle Against Terrorism. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-14042-3