Shai Elbaz

Shai Elbaz was born in 1972 in Ashdod

Shai Elbaz was born and raised in Ashdod. His father, Nissim, served on the local religious council and the Ashdod city council. He attended high school at Midrashiat Noam in Pardes Hanna and studied in a program for gifted students in mathematics at the Weizmann Institute of Science.

He was drafted in August 1990 and began the pilots course, then left it and joined Shayetet 13. He held command roles in the unit, led the Nahal reconnaissance company in southern Lebanon, and was wounded in Operation Defensive Shield. He commanded the Shayetet's combat flotilla from 2003 to 2005 and the Nahal's 934th Reconnaissance Battalion from 2005 to 2007, which he led in the Second Lebanon War.

From 2010 to 2012 he commanded Shayetet 13, including during the takeover of the Gaza flotilla and the seizure of a ship carrying Iranian weapons for Hamas. In 2014 he became head of the Navy's operations department, in 2015 head of its Intelligence Division, and in 2018 head of its Sea Division.

In March 2019 a press investigation raised claims about his judgment during a covert operation in Syria. In October 2019, ahead of a TV report on claims of sexual harassment against female soldiers, he retired from the IDF. The IDF did not examine the claims, as no formal complaint had been filed and much time had passed.