Baruch Harel

Baruch Harel was born in 1931 in Târgu Neamț

Harel was born in 1931 in Târgu Neamț, Moldavia, and lived through the Holocaust as a child. He immigrated to Israel in 1949.

He joined the IDF in 1950 in the Golani Brigade and fought at Tel Mutilla as a squad commander. In 1952 he moved to the Armored Corps and fought in Operation Kadesh with Battalion 9 of the 7th Brigade. He later held training posts, served as deputy head of the Armor School and commanded Battalion 82 in 1965 and 1966.

In the Six-Day War he was deputy commander of the 7th Brigade and was the first to reach El Arish. During the War of Attrition he commanded Operation Raviv, an armored raid on the western shore of the Gulf of Suez. He then commanded the 14th Brigade from 1969 to 1971, when he was wounded by a mine during an exercise.

In the Yom Kippur War he was deputy commander of Division 252 and led an improvised brigade that crossed the Suez Canal on 18 October 1973 and reached Kilometer 101. After the war he testified before the Agranat Commission. He later commanded Divisions 440 and 252 and retired in 1979, and he died in 2017.