Nathan Elbaz ( he, נתן אלבז; 17 October 1932 – 11 February 1954) was an

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...

soldier who sacrificed his life for his friends, receiving the

Medal of Distinguished Service The Medal of Distinguished Service ( he, עיטור המופת) is an Israeli military decorations, Israeli military decoration. The Medal of Distinguished Service is the third most important medal given by the IDF Chief of General Staff (Israel), ...

Biography

Elbaz was born in

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

, to a Jewish family. He attended

Hebrew school Hebrew school is Jewish education focusing on topics of Jewish history, learning the Hebrew language, and finally learning their Torah Portion, in preparation for the ceremony in Judaism of entering adulthood, known as a Bar or Bat Mitzvah. Hebr ...

, and he and his friends dreamed of making

aliyah Aliyah (, ; he, עֲלִיָּה ''ʿălīyyā'', ) is the immigration of Jews from Jewish diaspora, the diaspora to, historically, the geographical Land of Israel, which is in the modern era chiefly represented by the Israel, State of Israel ...

. After the establishment of Israel in 1948, Elbaz and his friends were determined to move there. When he was 18, he left for Israel as part of Aliyat HaNoar ("Youth Aliyah"). Elbaz was inducted into the IDF in 1952 and served in the Infantry Corps. During his service, he was entrusted with the task of disassembling

hand grenade A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade genera ...

s. On 11 February 1954, Elbaz and another soldier were disassembling grenades, when a grenade he was holding was accidentally activated. He immediately called out a warning to his comrades to take shelter, but when he saw that there was no way to throw the grenade without endangering them, he ran away from them, pressing it to his chest and was thus killed. For this action he received a posthumous citation from chief of staff

Moshe Dayan Moshe Dayan ( he, משה דיין; 20 May 1915 – 16 October 1981) was an Israeli military leader and politician. As commander of the Jerusalem front in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (1953–1958) du ...

. The citation was replaced with the

, after the latter was established in 1970. Deaths by hand grenade Israeli Mizrahi Jews 1932 births 1954 deaths 20th-century Moroccan Jews Israeli people of Moroccan-Jewish descent Recipients of the Medal of Distinguished Service Burials at Kiryat Shaul Cemetery Accidental deaths in Israel {{Israel-mil-bio-stub