Azoulay, Yaakov (Kobi)

Son of Vivian and Shimon. Kobi was born in Jerusalem on August 9, 1972. Kobi finished elementary school in Jerusalem and continued to the “Youth Village” high school in the city, which he successfully completed. When Kobi was nine, his father died. Koby enlisted in the IDF on November 26, 1990 and was assigned to the Golani Brigade, where he was sent to the officers’ course, completed successfully and returned to the brigade. After serving duty, Kobi served in the army for four years. He was a commander of a company, and in 1997, after seven years of regular service, he was released from the army with the rank of captain. Upon his release, Kobi joined the police. At the beginning of his career he established the Civil Guard unit in Migdal HaEmek, and was later appointed as an officer of the Special Operations Division of the Amakim Police Department. Kobi was totally invested in the work. He was a ‘morale’ … Every little warning he would receive would have left his studies. Following a wave of terrorist attacks, the second intifada in early 2002, and after the attack on the Passover Seder at the Park Hotel in Netanya, prior to Operation Defensive Shield in Judea and Samaria, and after a short training session, the brigade embarked on an operational activity in Jenin, where its members fought for eight days. Kobi was one of the brigade’s officers, but when he was a police officer he was exempt from reserve service. From the moment he became aware of the enlistment he called the brigade commander and demanded to join, but was rejected because he was a policeman. He did not give up, showed up at the conference with his team, was given permission from the enlistment men to enlist, and then a new problem arose – he did not have an organic unit, and there was no room for his appointment. He insisted on joining his brigade. On the morning of 27 Nissan, April 9, 2002, Kobi was killed in a battle in Jenin. Kobi was thirty years old when he fell. He was laid to rest at the military cemetery in Migdal Haemek. Survived by a mother, two brothers and two sisters.