Reprisal operations

Reprisal operations (Hebrew: פעולות התגמול, romanized: Pe'ulot HaTagmul) were raids carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in the 1950s and 1960s in response to frequent fedayeen attacks during which armed Arab militants infiltrated Israel from Syria, Egypt, and Jordan to carry out attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers. Most of the reprisal operations followed raids that resulted in Israeli fatalities. The goal of these operations – from the perspective of Israeli officials – was to create deterrence and prevent future attacks. Two other factors behind the raids were restoring public morale and training newly formed army units. The amount of casualties enacted by the Israeli operatrions onto Palestinian villagers and civilians in these operations was disproportionately larger than that suffered by all Israelis during the fedayeen's attacks; this would culminate in the 1953 Qibya massacre.