STERN GANG

also called Stern Group, or Lehi, formally Lohame Herut Yisra'el (Hebrew: Fighters for the Freedom of Israel) Zionist terrorist organization in Palestine, founded in 1940 by Avraham Stern (190742) after a split in the right-wing underground movement, Irgun Zvai Leumi. Fanatically anti-British, the group repeatedly attacked British personnel in Palestine and even invited aid from the Axis powers. The British police retaliated by killing Stern in his apartment in February 1942; many of the gang's leaders were subsequently arrested. The group's terrorist activities extended beyond Palestine: two members assassinated Lord Moyne, British minister of state in the Middle East, at Cairo (November 1944). Later, the Stern Gang attacked airfields, railway yards, and other strategic installations in Palestine, usually with success, though at heavy loss in members killed or captured. After the creation of Israel (1948), the group, which had always been condemned by moderate leaders of the Jewish community in Palestine, was suppressed, some of its units being incorporated in the Israeli defense forces. Unlike the Irgun Zvai Leumi, a precursor of the Herut (Freedom) Party, the Stern Gang left no political party to carry on its political programs.