Israel Code Name Cherry

Do covert operations against the intifadeh go too far?

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...

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