Editing Unit 101 (section)

==Disbandment==
After realizing the huge success of Unit 101, the Chief of Staff, General Moshe Dayan decided that the experience gained by it must be shared with all IDF infantry units starting with the Paratroopers Battalion 890. This was done by merging the two together under the command of Ariel Sharon who was then promoted to the rank of Lt. Colonel. After the merger and the addition of a Nachal Mutznach battalion, the combined outfit turned into a brigade size unit, named Brigade 202 (now the 35th [[Paratroopers Brigade]]). Sharon became the commander of the merged brigade which was now composed of two battalions—890 and 88 and a few months later joined by reserve battalion 771 which included ex-101 members together with reserve paratroopers and Nachal paratroopers.

[[File:Kibya ruins.jpg|thumb|200px|A resident of [[Qibya]] at the ruins of his house after the attack by Israeli forces in October 1953]]
The merge with T'zanhanim company{{Clarify|date=October 2015}} was actually ironic since their officers were originally the biggest opposition against the creation of Unit 101.<ref name="Israeli Special Forces History" />  This was because they didn't want a competitor for retaliation missions.  Before the formation of Unit 101 only they undertook these missions.<ref name="Israeli Special Forces History" /><ref name="Unit 101 (history) - Specwar.info "/>

Operating within the brigade, they{{Who|date=October 2015}} carried out a large-scale attack on the Egyptian army positions in the Gaza strip during February 1955.  Sharon personally led the raid, codenamed [[Operation Black Arrow]].  It resulted in 42 Egyptian soldiers killed and 36 wounded, versus 8 Israeli dead.<ref name="Unit 101 (history) - Specwar.info "/>  The newly formed brigade did most of the Israeli special forces operations during the remainder of the 1950s.<ref name="Israeli Special Forces History" /><ref name="Unit 101 (history) - Specwar.info "/>

Egyptian shock over the magnitude of their losses is often cited as one of the catalysts for the Soviet-Egyptian arms deal that opened the Middle East to the [[Soviet Union]].  Up to 20 such attacks were carried out between 1955 and 1956, culminating in the [[Qalqilya|Qalqilya Police raid]] of October 1956.<ref name="Unit 101 (history) - Specwar.info "/>  This particular raid targeted a position of the Jordanian [[Arab Legion]] in one of the old [[Mandatory Palestine|British]] police forts, during which 18 Israeli soldiers and up to a hundred Legionnaires were killed.

During the end of the 1950s the IDF realized that they were lacking a small SF unit, since the T'zanhanim company had turned into an infantry brigade. That is the main reason why Avraham Arnan formed the [[Sayeret Matkal]] in 1958.  In various ways the Sayeret Matkal combined the operational experience gathered by Unit 101 and utilised the structure of the British [[Special Air Service]].<ref name="The secret remains">{{cite web|url=http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1019894.html|title=The secret remains&nbsp;– Haaretz&nbsp;– Israel News|last=Reicher-Atir |first=Yiftach|date=September 2008|access-date=2009-09-05}}</ref>  After losing their special forces title, the T'zanhanim company formed its own SF unit—the [[Sayeret T'zanhanim]] in October 1958.<ref name="Unit 101 (history) - Specwar.info "/>