Editing Moshe Dayan (section)

===Cross-border operations===
In July 1953, while on the General staff, Dayan was party to the setting up of [[Unit 101]], which was to specialise in night-time cross-border retaliation raids.<ref>Morris ''Border Wars''. p. 239.</ref> He was initially opposed to setting up such a group because he argued it would undermine his attempts to prepare the IDF for an offensive war.<ref>Teveth ''Dayan''. p. 243.</ref> Unit 101's first official operation was to attack, on 28 August 1953, the [[Bureij|Bureij Refugee Camp]], during which they killed 20 refugees and suffered 2 wounded.<ref>Morris ''Border Wars''. p. 242.</ref>

By October 1953, Dayan was closely involved with 101. He was one of the main architects of the [[Qibya massacre]], on the night of 14/15 October 1953, in response to the killing of 3 Israeli civilians in the [[Yehud attack]] on 12 October. The General Staff order stated "temporarily to conquer the village of Qibya – with the aim of blowing up houses and hitting the inhabitants". The Central Command Operation Instructions were more specific: "carry out destruction and maximum killings." One hundred and thirty IDF soldiers, of whom a third came from Unit 101, carried out the operation. They carried 70&nbsp;kg of explosives, blew up 45 houses, and killed 69 people. The commander who led the attack, [[Ariel Sharon]] later said that he had "thought the houses were empty".<ref>Morris ''Border Wars''. pp. 245–276.</ref> The international criticism over the killed civilians led to a change of tactics. It was the last large-scale IDF attack on civilian buildings. In the future, targets were to be the [[Arab Legion]], the Frontier Police, and the Egyptian or Syrian Armies. Dayan merged Unit 101 with the [[Paratroopers Brigade]] and assigned its command to Sharon.<ref>Teveth ''Dayan''. p. 249.</ref>

Dayan had a difficult relationship with MoD Lavon. There were issues over spending priorities and over Lavon's dealings with senior IDF members behind Dayan's back. This ended with Lavon's resignation over who ordered the [[Lavon Affair|sabotage operation]] in Egypt, which led to the trial of a number of Egyptian Jews, two of whom were executed.

Dayan believed in the value of punitive cross-border retaliation raids:
<blockquote>We cannot save each water pipe from explosion or each tree from being uprooted. We cannot prevent the murder of workers in orange groves or of families in their beds. But we ''can'' put a very high price on their blood, a price so high that it will no longer be worthwhile for the Arabs, the Arab armies, for the Arab states to pay it.<ref>Allon, Yigal (1970) ''Shield of David – The Story of Israel's Armed Forces.'' Weidenfeld and Nicolson. SBN 297 00133 7. p. 235</ref><ref>Burns, Lieutenant-General E.L.M. (1962) ''Between Arab and Israeli''. George G. Harrap. p. 63 gives source [[Jerusalem Post]] 4 September 1955.</ref></blockquote>

Prime Minister Sharett was an advocate of restraint and was not as confident in the attacks' effectiveness. When seeking approval for operations, Dayan downplayed the scale of the raids to get approval. There were fewer large-scale cross-border raids in 1954.<ref>Morris ''Border Wars''. p. 424.</ref> Between December 1953 and September 1954, at least 48 Arabs were killed in over 18 cross-border raids. Fifteen of the dead were civilians: farmers, shepherds, and a doctor; two were women.<ref>Morris ''Border Wars''. pp. 293–323.</ref> With Ben-Gurion's return, this changed. On the night of 28 February 1955, [[Retribution operations|Operation Black Arrow]] (''Mivtza Hetz Shahor'') was launched against an Egyptian Army camp south of Gaza City. The IDF force consisted of 120 paratroops and suffered 14 dead; 36 Egyptian soldiers were killed as well as two Palestinian civilians. Ben-Gurion and Dayan had told Sharett that their estimate of Egyptian casualties was 10.<ref>Morris ''Border Wars''. pp. 324–327.</ref> On 31 August 1955, despite Sharett's opposition, three paratroop companies attacked the British-built [[Tegart fort]] in [[Khan Yunis]]. [[Operation Elkayam]] directives called for "killing as many enemy soldiers as possible". The police station and a number of other buildings were blown-up and 72 Egyptian and Palestinians were killed.<ref>Morris, ''Border wars''. p. 350.</ref><ref>Katz, Samuel M. (1988) ''Israeli Elite Units since 1948.'' Osprey Publishing. {{ISBN|0-85045-837-4}}. p. 10</ref>