Katz, Assaf

Ben Tzipora and Yeshayahu. Was born on 25.5.1923 in Ein Harod, where he suffered from fever and other serious illnesses, and the family moved from place to place and stayed at Tel Yosef, the Labor Battalion in Jerusalem, Beit Alpha, Tel Adashim, Rehovot, and Assaf. When he was 13, he came to live in the kibbutz with his parents, and he received his education at the Yagur Regional School, where he devoted himself to studying the Bible, the Hebrew language and literature. His love for the land, its paths and its valleys, was interwoven with the ancient love of the biblical landscape, and he began extensive tours of the country, guarding the fields and learning the language of the neighboring people. Who joined the Palmach. After three years of service he returned home, but when he returned he said: “We have to take Jews to Israel.” He was involved in raising illegal immigrants and was one of the liberators of the Atlit detainees. During the War of Independence he participated in the occupation of Balad-a-Sheikh, breaking into the Western Galilee and conquering Acre, and as a squad commander in an attack on Jenin. In this battle, he was wounded in the shoulder and leg, and for eight hours he made his way wounded under a shower of bullets until he reached the first Hebrew outpost near Jenin. With the establishment of the Minorities Unit in the IDF, Assaf was called upon to be active in it and was answered before he recovered from his injuries, while the Druze soldiers, among them one of them, intervened and became one of them, loved him and respected him. In the western sector of the operation, on the night of 28-29 October, our forces attacked Tarshiha and the Druze unit was forced to conquer the village of Yanuh.The attack on Tarshiha was unsuccessful and the forces were ordered to retreat. In the morning Kaukji’s forces recovered and, with the help of some villagers, attacked the unit Jeff, who believed in the power of the white flag, rushed to rescue a Druze wounded man from his company and was wounded by a bullet in his forehead and died on the spot on the 29th of Tishrei 5729 (29.10.1948). The kibbutz issued a file in his memory: “Assaf”.