Appel, Yaakov (Ya’akale)

Yaakov (Ya’akele), son of Henia and Rafael Appel, was born in 1922 in Warsaw, Poland, and in 1934 immigrated to Eretz Yisrael. In the War of Independence, Yaakov was among the first recruits to serve in the Carmeli Brigade and participated in the cleansing of the Haifa area and the conquest of Acre. He was among the defenders of Mishmar Ha’emek and Ramot Naftali. On 4 Sivan, 11 June 1948, he fell in a face-to-face battle in Ramot Naftali, when he was hit by shrapnel from a grenade. Yaakov was buried in Ramot Naftali. On the 27th of Adar (16.3.1950) he was transferred to eternal rest in the military cemetery in Haifa.