Ben-Atar, Shabtai

Son of Kelo and Shmuel, was born on September 28, 1924 in Istanbul, Turkey. In 1937 he immigrated to Israel with his parents and lived in Tel Aviv. At the outbreak of the War of Independence Shabtai took part in the defense of Tel Aviv. He was caught by the British, interrogated by them, and they also shot at him and his friends, but he managed to escape. Shabtai instructed his comrades to use heavy machine guns. He participated in sabotage operations in the neighborhoods of Manshiyeh and Salameh, and was among the occupiers of the Beit Dagon police force. Shabtai would go out to work with exemplary coolness and complete confidence. Only before he left for the last time did he feel as though he might not return. On the last vacation he also said this to his fiancée, when he left her. Shabtai fell in battle while holding back the enemy attack on the Sarafand camp on 4 Sivan, June 11, 1948, and was brought to rest in the Nahalat Yitzhak Military Cemetery.