Shmueli, Yaakov

Yaakov, son of Tzipora and David Shmueli, was born in 1929 in Safed to a poor carpenter’s family. With the outbreak of the War of Independence, he enlisted and took part in many activities to defend Jerusalem. He completed a paramedics’ course and was one of the members of the “Halachah” platoon, Palmach and Hachash fighters who were sent as reinforcements to Gush Etzion after the large attack on the Bloc on January 14, 1948. The fighters left Har Tuv on the night of January 15-16, 1948 with equipment, but due to the late hour of departure and the difficulties of the road, they were unable to reach Gush Katif in the middle of the night. They were discovered by villagers in the vicinity of the villages of Beit Natif, Jaba and Surif, (“Battle Hill” today) and fought with the masses of Arabs until they all fell in battle on the 5th of Shevat 5708 (16.1.1948). Yaakov was buried in a mass grave in Kfar Etzion. On the 25th of Cheshvan 5710 (17.11.1949) he was transferred to eternal rest, together with the rest of the victims of the Gush, to the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.