Fosh (Haganah unit)

Moshe Dayan, Yitzhak Sadeh, and Yigal Allon. Kibbutz Hanita, 1938

The Fosh (Hebrew: פו"ש‎, an abbreviation for Plugot Sadeh (Hebrew: פלוגות השדה‎), lit. Field Companies) was an elite Jewish strike force established as the commando arm of the Haganah in 1937, during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine in the British Mandate of Palestine. Its members were hand-picked by Yitzhak Sadeh, commander of the Jewish Settlement Police.

A Fosh unit passes through Yasur, Gaza

By March 1938 the Fosh had 1,500 trained fighters divided into 13 regional groups. They were armed with stolen British SMLEs, grenades, rifles and some small arms, and attacked Arab villages in swift raids with Charles Orde Wingate's Special Night Squads, taking full advantage of their mobility.

The Fosh was disbanded in 1939 to create a larger force known as the Hish (Heil Sadeh, "Field Force"). During World War II Fosh veterans were trained by the British for commando night raids.

References

• Katz, Sam (1988). Israeli Elite Units Since 1948. Osprey Publishing.
• Oring, Elliott (1981). Israeli Humor: The Content and Structure of the Chizbat of the Palmah. SUNY Press. ISBN 0-87395-512-9