Palestine. Sereni alienated many in the British Army for his staunch
Zionist views, and he was imprisoned briefly for allegedly forging
passports. He launched a hunger strike to protest his imprisonment,
and soon was released. Later in World War II, Sereni helped to or-
ganize a Jewish parachute unit in Palestine, run by the British Army
in conjunction with the Jewish Agency. Its objective was to infiltrate
enemy-occupied territory in Europe to help the Allied war effort;
also, it was to establish contact with partisan fighters in an attempt to
aid beleaguered Jewish communities. More than 250 volunteers
trained for the unit; Sereni himself, despite his age, was one of 33
who actually were parachuted into Europe. On 15 May 1944 he was
parachuted into northern Italy with the goal of establishing contact
with Italian partisans. Landing in German-held terrain, he was cap-
tured immediately and sent to concentration camps. He was ulti-
mately shot in Dachau on 18 November 1944. After his death, his
widow, Ada Sereni was one of the leaders of the illegal immigration
movement to Palestine.SHABAK.See ISRAELI SECURITY AGENCY.SHAHAK, AMNON.See LIPKIN-SHAHAK, AMNON.SHAHAR.See MISTA’ARAVIM; ARAB PLATOON.SHAHIN, IBRAHIM.A Palestinian from El-Arish, Shahin was recruited
for an espionage mission against Egypt by Military Intelligence
shortly after the Israel Defense Forces occupied the Sinai Desert in- As was common for a low level agent, he was initially asked to
provide ostensibly innocuous information such as details on food and
transportation prices. To the satisfaction of his handlers, he was later
asked to collect military intelligence. Shahin provided good information
about unusually dense troop movement toward the Suez Canal. He
warned the Israeli government of an impending attack by Egypt prior to
the October 1973 Yom Kippur War. Shahin was arrested by the Egypt-
ian authorities, tried, and hanged in Cairo in 1977.
Shahin’s widow, Inshirah, was recruited by Israeli intelligence as
well. She and his children were arrested. After the signing of the
peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, Shahin’s family was released
SHAHIN, IBRAHIM• 25306-102 (04) Q-Z.qxd 3/24/06 7:26 AM Page 253