Editing David Ben-Gurion (section)

====Reprisal operations====
{{See also|Reprisal operations|Qibya massacre}}

[[File:Haifa (997008136360005171).jpg|thumb|right|Ben-Gurion at the Parade of the Israel Defense Forces in 1953, Haifa]]

During this period, [[Palestinian fedayeen]] repeatedly infiltrated into Israel from Arab territory. In 1953, after a handful of unsuccessful retaliatory actions, Ben-Gurion charged [[Ariel Sharon]], then security chief of the northern region, with setting up a new commando unit designed to respond to fedayeen infiltrations. Ben-Gurion told Sharon, "The Palestinians must learn that they will pay a high price for Israeli lives." Sharon formed [[Unit 101]], a small commando unit answerable directly to the [[General Staff (Israel)|IDF General Staff]] tasked with retaliating for fedayeen raids. During its five months of existence, the unit launched repeated raids against military targets and villages used as bases by the fedayeen.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.specwar.info/special-forces/israel/unit-101/ |title=Unit 101 (Israel) &#124; Specwar.info &#124;&#124; |publisher=En.specwar.info |access-date=9 September 2012}}</ref> These attacks became known as the [[reprisal operations]]. One such operation gained international condemnation of Israel, after an Israeli army attack on the village of [[Qibya]] in the then Jordanian-ruled [[West Bank]], ended with a massacre of 69 Palestinian villagers, two thirds of them women and children.<ref name=uneasy>{{citation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G820rBq299AC&pg=PA191|page=191|title=An Uneasy Relationship: American Jewish Leadership And Israel, 1948–1957|first=Zvi|last=Ganin|publisher=Syracuse University Press|year=2005|isbn=978-0-8156-3051-7}}</ref><ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CW7GbiUkri0C&pg=PA91| last = Shlaim| first = Avi| title = The Iron Wall| publisher = Norton  | year = 1999  | isbn = 978-0-393-04816-2|page=91}}</ref><ref name="Benny Morris 1993, pp. 258-9">Benny Morris, ''Israel's Border Wars, 1949–1956: Arab Infiltration, Israeli Retaliation and the Countdown to the Suez War'', Oxford University Press, 1993, pp. 258–9.</ref> Ben Gurion denied involvement of the army and placed blame on Israeli civilians, a fabrication which was repeated by him at the UN. He was seen as having protected involved subordinates in the military from accountability.<ref name="BG">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bcAwCwAAQBAJ|title=The International Diplomacy of Israel's Founders|author=John Quigley|year=2016|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-13873-5 }}</ref>