A month after a crack army commando unit failed in its attempt to free kidnapped Cpl. Nachman Waxman from a house where he was being held by Hamas gunmen, the Israeli public got its first glimpse of a special undercover unit that had been passed over for the assignment and has been shrouded in secrecy until now.
President Ezer Weizman last week watched a training exercise being carried out by the undercover border police unit whose members, disguised as Arabs, have hunted down terrorists in the heart of Palestinian villages and towns.
After members of the media attended the screening, a portion of the unit’s practice session at a desert base was shown on Israel Television.
The unit commander said that since the unit had been established in 1990, it had killed 50 terrorists and captured 70 others.
Weizman told reporters that “even while we are talking peace, such units as this must continue to operate to ensure the nation remains strong.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
