Yosef (Pepo) Strugno

Yosef, son of Pnina and Yitzhak Strungo, was born in 1925 in the city of Salonika, Greece. In 1934, at the age of nine, he immigrated to Israel with his parents who settled in Haifa. In February 1948, at the outbreak of the War of Independence, he joined the army and was active in the defense of Lower Haifa. On October 22, 1948, during the second truce, Kaukji’s forces attacked the outpost unexpectedly and fell into their hands. On the same day an armored company of the Carmeli Brigade attacked an attempt to retake the outpost, but without success. In this battle he fell, with one hand holding the steering wheel of the jeep and the other with a machine gun, on the 19th of Tishrei, 5709 (October 22, 1948). He was laid to rest at the military cemetery in Rosh Pina.