Cohen, Yehuda-Yaakov (Shimshon)

Son of-Victoria and Haim-Shlomo was born on January 2, 1929, in Haifa, where he completed his studies at the Alliance School in Haifa and began working in his father’s shop in 1943. In June 1945 he was a member of the Irgun Zvai Leumi He was sentenced to three years in prison and imprisoned in Acre prison, but in July 1946 he was granted a pardon, but in July 1946 he was arrested and transferred to Latrun and released on the eve of the UN General Assembly resolution on November 29, 1947. The partition of the land into two states. At the outbreak of the War of Independence, he enlisted and served in the Alexandroni Brigade. In the middle of July 1948 he joined the Palmach, was sent to the Negev, then besieged, and was among the jeep units that were stationed in Ruhama and Dorot, and his friend from childhood, who had been with him for years To the special company in the Golani Brigade battalion and participated in the conquest of the central Galilee. With his battalion, he was transferred to Julis and from there to the Orim in the Negev. Was among the conquerors of the Sheik-Noreen regime from the Egyptians. A few days before Operation Horev, he was given leave to undergo appendicitis surgery, but at the beginning of the operation he gave up his vacation and joined his unit. In Operation Horev, the expulsion of the Egyptian army from Israel, the Golani Brigade was tasked with creating a deception in the western wing of the front, before the main effort in the eastern wing began. On the night of December 22-23, 1948, the brigade captured the 86th position north of Khan Yunis, threatening the road and the railway, and gave the impression that the intention was to cut off the Egyptian forces in the Gaza Strip. The Egyptians reacted with a fierce counter-attack with the help of artillery and armor, and under enemy pressure the Golani fighters were forced to retreat. In this battle, his friend Dov was hit by Egyptian mortar fire. Yehuda rushed to him to help him. Their friends are standing on the jeep: Yehuda is dead and a dying bear. Both fell on 20 December 1948. “The lovers and the pleasant ones in their lives and in their deaths did not separate.” Yehuda-Yaakov was brought to eternal rest in the cemetery in Haifa.