Cohen, Zion (“Chico”)

Son of Shimon and Shoshana. He was born on February 22, 1941 in Rehovot. At first he studied at an elementary school in the village of Zarnuga (near Rehovot), then went on to the Gadna farm in Hulda, and from there went to Kibbutz Kfar Hanassi, where he lived in his sister’s house in the Yemenite neighborhood of Pardes Hanna. He worked as a tractor operator and was dedicated to his work. He was a soldier in the army and was proud of his position in the army, and before the Six-Day War he received a summons and when he went to the army for the last time he told his friends: On the sands. “I expect to receive an order from the commander – war or peace, but not an interim situation.” However, he fell short of allowing him to realize the aspiration that was in his Lev to establish a family and did not even see the great victory. Participated in the battle against the artillery system in the rear of the Um-Katef compound and in the assault to clear the artillery positions. He was wounded by a bundle, dressed and received medical treatment under the enemy fire, and was killed on the shoulders of his comrades. This was the 27th of Iyar 5727 (June 6, 1967), the second day of the battles. He was buried in the military emergency cemetery in Bari and was later transferred to eternal rest in the military cemetery in Rehovot. The commander of the company, in which he served for six years in the reserves, wrote that already in the first training that was difficult and arduous for reserve soldiers, Zion stood by the will and the determined decision to be with all his comrades in the battalion mortar division, even in times of effort and difficulty. The commander of his unit, in a letter of condolence to the family, noted that in the battle in which he participated, Gila Zion was heroic and willing to sacrifice himself for his people.