Samson's Foxes (, ''Shu'alei Shimshon'') was an Israeli

commando A commando is a combatant, or operative of an elite light infantry or special operations force, specially trained for carrying out raids and operating in small teams behind enemy lines. Originally, "a commando" was a type of combat unit, as oppo ...

unit of the

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, also known as the First Arab–Israeli War, followed the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, civil war in Mandatory Palestine as the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. The civil war becam ...

. It was part of the 54th Battalion (commanded by Zvi Zur) of the

Givati Brigade The 84th "Givati" Brigade () is an Israel Defense Forces infantry brigade formed in 1947. During the 1948 war, it was involved in capturing Palestinian villages in operations ''Hametz'', ''Barak'', and ''Pleshet''. Before Israel's 2005 ...

. The unit participated in various battles on the southern front, including Operation GYS and the Battles of the Separation Corridor.

Uri Avnery Uri Avnery (, also transliterated Uri Avneri; 10 September 1923 – 20 August 2018) was a German-born Israeli writer, journalist, politician, and activist, who founded the Gush Shalom peace movement. A member of the Irgun as a teenager and a vet ...

, later to become an outspoken advocate of Israeli-Palestinian Peace and a personal friend of

Yasser Arafat Yasser Arafat (4 or 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), also popularly known by his Kunya (Arabic), kunya Abu Ammar, was a Palestinian political leader. He was chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from 1969 to 2004, Presid ...

, was a member of this unit and wrote a song called "Samson's Foxes" which was its unofficial anthem. The modern Givati brigade named its reconnaissance companies after the 1940s unit in 1983. The companies were consolidated into a reconnaissance battalion of the same name in 2001, once again subordinate to the Givati Brigade. Most of its work is confidential, though it is known to operate under the IDF's Gaza territorial command. The unit's name is derived from the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

. In the

Judge A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...

Samson SAMSON (Software for Adaptive Modeling and Simulation Of Nanosystems) is a computer software platform for molecular design being developed bOneAngstromand previously by the NANO-D group at the French Institute for Research in Computer Science an ...

is described as having attached torches to the tails of three hundred

fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

es, leaving the panicked beasts to run through the fields of the

Philistines Philistines (; LXX: ; ) were ancient people who lived on the south coast of Canaan during the Iron Age in a confederation of city-states generally referred to as Philistia. There is compelling evidence to suggest that the Philistines origi ...

, burning all in their wake.Margalith, O., 1985. Samson's foxes. Vetus Testamentum, 35(Fasc. 2), pp.224-229. PikiWiki Israel 8985 jeep willis from the independence war

PikiWiki Israel 8985 jeep willis from the independence war

The fox logo of the Israeli Army's Southern Command is derived from the same story.

References

1948 Arab–Israeli War Special forces of Israel {{Israel-mil-stub