If you follow news reports of the events in Israel / Palestine, you might see a strange armored vehicle used by the Israeli Defence Forces when they are conducting operations (like shooting up Yassir Arafat's headquarers, or otherwise oppressing many innocent Palestinians in search of real terrorists.)

This mysterious tracked vehicle is not a main battle tank - it does not have a turret, yet it has the profile of a tank with a low and wide hull. If it is not a tank, then one would guess it must be an infantry fighting / assault vehicle, used to carry infantry into battle, but most such AFVs have a much higher profile, like the U.S. M113 (also used by Israel) or the Bradley Fighting Vehicle.

This Israeli afv is the "Achzarit" (hebrew for "Cruel Woman"?). It looks like a tank because it is built using a tank hull! The Achzarit is a "recycled" vehicle, based on the Russian T-55, many of which were captured in Israel's conflicts with its Soviet backed Arab neighbors. The T-55 hull was ingeniously redesigned, to the extent that there is even a clam-shell ramp for loading / offloading soldiers squeezed in to one side of the engine in the rear, just like you find on most infantry assault vehicles! (the ramp is very narrow, though) The Achzarit's success may have inspired the Russians to modify some of their own T-55's to create a similar vehicle, known as the BTR-T.