Vaknin, Yitzhak (Izhak)

Yitzhak (Yizhak), son of Zohara and Joseph, was born on September 25, 1949 in Casablanca, Morocco, and immigrated to Israel with his family in 1954. Yitzhak was drafted into the IDF in early October 1966 and assigned to the Ordnance Corps, and since his older brother passed away during his military service in 1956, his parents asked him to serve in his home, where he served as a truck driver at the Tzrifin base, where he took part in the Six Day War. After his discharge, Yitzhak was assigned to reserve duty in the armored infantry battalion of the Armored Corps. After a short while, Yitzhak took part in a course for half-track drivers and was appointed as a half-track driver in the battalion. He loved the army and when he was called up for reserve duty, he would hasten to prepare everything needed long in advance. After the liberation, Yitzhak returned to work as a carpenter and recently worked as a foreman in a carpentry workshop in Jaffa. In 1971 he married a wife and the couple continued to live in the Hatikva neighborhood. All his acquaintances said that he was a model husband. When the Yom Kippur War broke out, Yitzhak was called to his unit and participated in battles in the Sinai. On the 19th of Tishrei (October 15, 1973), Yitzhak was hit by a bullet in his heart and was killed in an ambush by an Egyptian commando unit near Bluza in the northern sector of the Suez Canal on the way to the “Budapest” stronghold. (His second son was born the day before he fell, and was named after him – Yitzhak Shalom), parents and four brothers, and was raised to the rank of sergeant in a letter of condolences to the bereaved family. And loved his comrades and commanders and fell in the act of courage and heroism. “