Israel Code Name "Cherry"

By Jon D. Hull/Jerusalem

Israel's army has reached deep into its kit bag of tricks during the unavailing struggle to quell the eleven-month-old Palestinian revolt. Two of the most feared are called "Cherry" and "Samson," code names for clandestine military teams whose members, garbed in kaffiyehs and speaking Arabic, secretly stalk the leaders of the intifadeh in the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinians charge that the units are actually death squads that murder suspects without provocation. The army refuses to discuss its covert operations against the uprising but vehemently denies it fields hit teams. "Dirty tricks are part of the game," confides a former Cherry member, "but not killing."

Squad members say the job is merely to intimidate and jail the ringleaders of the intifadeh. Specially trained soldiers armed with light, concealable weapons pose as Arabs as they prowl the territories in confiscated cars with West Bank license plates. Their tactics are often brutally simple. In Gaza undercover soldiers jumped from a car and clubbed Palestinian activists who were threatening Arab workers for violating a strike. Palestinian sources say the soldiers have also posed as members of the P.L.O. and beaten up rival Palestinians in attempts to spark internal warfare. Some of the Cherry soldiers even impersonate journalists, nabbing suspects in mid-interview. "We have done more than anyone else to restore order," boasts one ex-member. "They never know where we will pop up."

Military sources insist such actions are fully justified and claim that Cherry (the West Bank unit) and Samson (the Gaza unit) have arrested dozens of leaders of the uprising. They contend that all their operations stay within the bounds of Israeli law. Palestinians, on the other hand, charge that the clandestine teams have been given a license to kill. Last month six Cherry men disguised as Arabs drove a van with West Bank plates into the Arab village of Yatta. When local Palestinians approached the car to identify the occupants, two of them were machine-gunned to death. Both victims were on the Cherry unit's wanted list.

The soldiers insisted they fired in self-defense, but the Palestinians deny that the undercover troops were ever in danger. Says the father of one victim: "They just shot them dead." Israeli Major General Amram Mitzna, who commands the West Bank, launched an investigation into the Yatta deaths. Insiders say the general was furious: "By shooting, you have exposed yourselves and your identity. You went there to arrest them, and the mission was not accomplished."

After news of the undercover squads broke in the foreign press, the Israeli government suspended the credentials of three journalists for failing to submit their stories to the military censor. "These reports are totally baseless," said army Chief of Staff Dan Shomron. "The undercover units are subject to military discipline and full supervision." Perhaps, but covert operations have a troubling habit of going awry -- or going too far.

With reporting by Ron Ben-Yishai/Tel Aviv