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Arbib, Joseph

Arbib, Joseph


Son of Esther and Yitzhak was born on July 25, 1925 in Tripoli, Libya, and immigrated to Israel with his family in 1934. His parents settled in the Montefiore neighborhood near Tel Aviv and Yosef attended the local school. He joined the Haganah in 1944 and was a loyal member of the “special” company, and at the beginning of the War of Independence he was sent to the Negev and participated in the defense of the moshav Afterward he participated in escorting caravans to the Upper Galilee, and when he began operations in Tel Aviv he participated in the activities of Salameh, Abu Kabir, Yazur, and again – accompanied by He took part in the Nachshon operation and accompanied the large convoy of more than 200 supply cars to Jerusalem on April 13, 1948. Yosef was sent with a rescue force to help the convoy of Hadassah workers who had been attacked . The road to Mount Scopus passed through the Arab Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and when the war broke out, the movement was allowed to mount convoys secured by the British army. On the morning of April 13, a convoy left for Mount Scopus, after the British promised that the road was open and safe. The convoy encountered an Arab ambush in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and hundreds of Arabs hurled heavy gunfire at it. Some of the vehicles managed to get out and return, but two buses, an ambulance and an escort convoy were ambushed. For many hours the convoy members fought and tried to prevent the Arabs from approaching the vehicles. Fire from our positions in the city and Mount Scopus, as well as armored vehicles sent to the area, failed to help the convoy. British military forces in the area did not intervene and did nothing to help, despite appeals to them. In the afternoon, the Arabs managed to set fire to two buses on their passengers, and only after evening did the British intervene and rescue the survivors from the trapped vehicles, out of 112 passengers who were killed and 78 injured. He was buried in Sanhedria in Jerusalem on 26.9.1951 and was transferred to the eternal military cemetery at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.

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