The creation of the State of Israel required many sacrifices from young people who, motivated by a cause, faced constant obstacles and gave their lives at the altar of their homeland.
Just over 50 years ago, during Israel's War of Independence, 35 Haganah fighters were killed during a relief mission to the kibbutzim of Gush Etsion – south of Jerusalem, surrounded by Arabs. Since then, monuments have been erected in memory of these 35 heroes – in Hebrew, Lamed Hê, in addition to a kibbutz and a road being named after them. According to The Jerusalem Post, they were also mentioned in a famous poem by the Israeli writer Haim Guri, also known as the Singer of the Palmach.
The Gush Etsion region is currently an isolated island of settlements. Its fate, since the 1993 Oslo Peace Agreement, is still uncertain. The neighboring cities of Jaba and Tsurif, whose inhabitants were accused of killing and maiming the Lamed Hê, still have a solid reputation as terrorist dens. It was in Tsurif that, in 1996, a Hamas cell was discovered responsible for the deaths of eleven Israelis in a series of ambushes and suicide attacks.
A difficult fight
In November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly voted on a motion approving the Partition of Palestine and marking the end of the British Mandate in the region. The kibbutzim of Gush Etsion – Kfar Etsion, Matsuot, Itzak, Ein Tzurim and Revadim, according to the UN plan, had been excluded from the future State of Israel. Jews living in the area considered them a crucial buffer zone against attacks on Jerusalem from the south. Bands of Arabs had cut off the road months earlier and 450 residents and Haganah fighters were besieged amid incessant hostilities.
In January 1948, Arab troops – numbering more than a thousand men – organized by Palestinian fighter Abdul Husseini, father of PLO leader Fayssal El Hussein, attacked Gush Etsion. Faced with the situation, the Haganá decided to send a relief squad with medical material and ammunition, essential elements to help the region's residents during the following attacks.
Forty of the best members of the Haganah and the Palmach left under the command of Dany Mass. Motivated and well-equipped, the group arrived at Moshav Har Tuv, devastated by new attacks by the Arabs. The weapons were hidden in an armored truck. During the journey, five men were left behind, including one injured. It was precisely these men who survived the terrible fate of their companions.
The group that had arrived in Har Tuv then decided to attempt a new attack against the enemies the following night. Once again, however, they were surprised by the Arabs. Their situation was more vulnerable during the day, as they were on a hill that was lower than the neighboring towns. Another strategic error was the fact that the commander underestimated the speed and intensity of the reaction of the local Arab population.
The ammunition brought by the Lamed Hê ran out and the fight only ended with the death of the last man. According to legend, due to lack of bullets, he died with a stone in his hand.
Great sacrifice
On January 17, 1948, the commander of Jerusalem sent the following message to Gush Etsion: "We have just learned that 35 corpses lie between Jaba and Tsurif." News of this massacre soon spread throughout the beleaguered Jewish community.
Eliezer Schmueli, a 19-year-old student at the Beit Hakerem Normal School – meeting point for the Palmach and Haganah troops and departure point for the Lamed Hê group – was chosen to announce the news. Schmueli remembers the rumors at the time about the operation, saying: "The Jerusalem community was worried, we were not used to seeing our young people die. But the time was one of sacrifice, to the point that we felt saddened for not having died together. When I read the list with the names of everyone I knew, I started crying in despair."
The lack of information about the missing led a British police inspector to send a commission to Tsurif. The mutilated bodies of the 35 young people were then found, of which only ten could be identified. The British decided to bury them in Gush Etsion, fearing reprisals if the funerals were in Jerusalem. On the list of victims, teachers, scientists, generals....
The history of the Lamed Hê is fading from memory, hidden by other, more glorious episodes. Fifty years later, however, the new generations have the mission of remembering the young people who gave their lives, with patriotism, for our cause.
