Mobile units (Haganah unit)

The Mobile units "Nomads" or "Wanderers" (Hebrew: הנודדות, romanized: Ha-Nodedot) was a detachment of the Haganah Jewish self-defense force in Mandate Palestine set up during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine as a mobile field-intelligence corps.^[1] The purpose of the Nodedot was to locate and defeat organised Arab resistance groups before they achieved operational capability.^[1]

The detachment was formed on the inspiration of Yitzhak Sadeh, a former officer in the Russian Army and a senior leader in the Haganah, as small night patrols capable of ambushing Arab rebels operating in the area of Jewish settlements.^[2]

As the Arab Revolt intensified Sadeh used the tactics he had developed with the Nodedot to establish a permanently mobilized force with regional commands called the Fosh and a joint unit with the British Army called the Special Night Squads.^[2]

Notes

1. Pedazhur, 2009, pp. 14-17
2. Oring, 1981, pp. 13-14.

References

• Katz, Sam (1988). Israeli Units Since 1948. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 0-85045-837-4
• Oring, Elliott (1981). Israeli Humor: The Content and Structure of the Chizbat of the Palmah. SUNY Press. ISBN 978-0-87395-512-6
• Pedahzur, Ami (2009). The Israeli Secret Services and the Struggle Against Terrorism. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-14042-3