The gunner from "Zvika Power" who reminded us that victory in war is only possible with teamwork

Eli Azoulay rarely spoke about the wars he fought, even though he took part in the famous heroic story "The Power of Zvika".

Only years later did he admit to being angry that the rest of the crew's part of the famous tank had been forgotten.

The value of the fraternity guided him throughout his life, as he assisted new immigrants and retirees in his city.

He passed away at the age of 71

Eli Ashkenazi

15/01/2022

Saturday, 15 January 2022, 10:40 Updated: 10:47

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In Kiryat Shmona, many knew Eli Azulai as a veteran municipal employee and as a key activist among municipal retirees. However, few knew his part in one of the famous stories of heroism in the Yom Kippur War. A few times Eli agreed to tell his story as a gunner in the famous tank of "Zvika Power", which is the tank commanded by Captain Zvika Gringold. Two and a half weeks ago, Azoulay passed away at the age of 71.

Eli Azoulay was born in Wazan, Morocco, in 1950 to his parents, Simi and Yaakov. The couple had eight children and their financial situation was very good thanks to the department store that was owned by the family. In 1961, the whole family immigrated to Israel and settled in Kiryat Shmona. Eli was absorbed in the "Fortress" elementary school and then moved to the Maalot high school.

He finished twelfth grade when he was only 16. It turned out that when the family came to Israel, he was registered as an adult two years older than his real age, because his parents recommended it. "The commanders noticed that I was not really an 18-year-old soldier. According to my movements and behavior, I looked more like something close to immature," he said about 15 years ago in an interview with Herzl Ben-Asher, who interviewed him for Kiryat News eight".

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Eli Azulai (Photo: Courtesy of the family)

Following this, the commander sent him to study at the Air Force Technical School, but Azoulay insisted on serving as a soldier and after eight months returned to the Armored Corps, to which he was assigned. He arrived at the Seventh Brigade, then commanded by Shmuel Gonen-Gorodish.

"The Six Day War broke out and our tank broke through the border with Egypt in the Gaza-Rafah area," he said. "I was poisoned by the army and the war was for me an understandable thing to do best." During the march towards al-Arish, the tank in which bread was hit by an Egyptian shell. He described a very tense time, in which they were alone and surrounded by residents, until they were rescued from the place. After boarding a new tank they joined the battles in Sinai.

Later, he served a long period in the War of Attrition, on the banks of the Suez Canal. "We felt like we were playing roulette," he said in an interview with Ben-Asher. "They put us on a dirt embankment, we would go up to the firing position in seconds, shoot and go down. It was like playing cat and mouse. I remember that period as very difficult, but we got along."

"We felt like we were playing roulette."

Azoulay in his military service as an armored fighter (Photo: Courtesy of the Family, Kiryat Shmona News)

After being released from regular service, he found work in Tel Aviv and moved to the big city.

After eight years at the center, of which he worked for five years in the aerospace industry, he decided to return to Kiryat Shmona, where his girlfriend, Michelin, lived at the time.

The two met from their childhood neighborhood and Michelin's older brother was a close friend of Azoulay.

In 1977 the two married and over the years the couple had four children - three daughters and a son.

Shortly afterwards, Azoulay began working for the Kiryat Shmona municipality as an absorption coordinator. During these years, new residents began to arrive in the city, including many teachers who began working in the city's education system. In this role, Azoulay assisted many and accompanied them in the process of their absorption in the city. "He had many friends left from those years," Michelin said. "He loved people very much, he loved helping and giving, and in that role he expressed that." Azoulay worked in the Housing and Absorption Department under Prosper Azran, who was later elected mayor at the age of 33. After five years as absorption coordinator, Azoulay was appointed to head the municipal manpower department (formerly known as the "Mechanism" - AA).

While Eli and Michelin began to settle in the city, all his family, parents and brothers, decided to move to Ashdod. Kiryat Shmona in those years suffered from a difficult security situation, which was mainly expressed in Katyusha rocket fire and a severe terrorist attack. This reality has led to big waves of departure. Michelin also asked to leave the city, "but Eli said that here is our home and our future, and did not want to leave." She said she still believed he would eventually give in to her will, so even though they bought a plot of land on which they planned to build their house, they waited for two years until construction began. "He insisted and in the end we built our house," she said.

At a time when the young couple was building their future in Kiryat Shmona and, like all the residents of the city, faced uncertainty with the attacks from the north, another thing happened that shook Azoulay and evoked ten-year-old difficult memories.

At the beginning of 1984, a storm arose in Israel in the face of claims that sought to shatter one of the most prominent stories of heroism of the Yom Kippur War - the story of "Zvika's Force".

During the war, there was a lone tank commanded by Captain Zvika Gringold, and together with his crew they managed to fight alone for long hours and block the progress of the Syrian armor towards the "volume" camp.

"Eli said that this is our home and our future."

Eli and Michelin (Photo: Official website, Herzl Ben-Asher, "Kiryat Shmona News")

Gringold was awarded the Medal of Heroism after the war - the highest decoration awarded by the Minister of Defense to fighters who sacrificed their lives on the battlefield. But the names of the fighters in the tanks commanded by Gringold in the first day of the battles were not known to the public. One of those fighters was Azoulay. He was the gunner in Gringold's tank, and the publications that sought to shatter the story of heroism hurt him. For the first time, he decided to reveal his story and in a short interview with the newspaper Maariv came out in defense of "Zvika Power". "Had the night also been necessary, I would not have hesitated to go into battle again with this officer, who functioned under incendiary fire like a real man," Azoulay said in the same interview. Then he returned to his anonymity and rarely talked about what he went through in those difficult battles.

"He did not want to talk about the war," Michelin said. She said, "He feared it would evoke difficult memories in him and he preferred not to go through that experience again." The few times he spoke, Azoulay recounted that difficult evening in which he entered the war. In those days he still lived in Tel Aviv. A recruitment order was affixed to the door of his apartment stating that he was asked to report urgently to his unit. Wearing jeans and a white shirt, he went to the Philo camp. Even before he had time to change his clothes quite an army, he was already in a tank that went up to the Golan Heights while traveling on the road. He and his comrades from the 266th Battalion with Centurion tanks ("whip") were among the first reservists to immigrate to the Golan Heights. "We had a company of 9-8 tanks on Saturday evening, when it was already dark," he told Walla !.

The small force ascended the oil route in the Cindiana area and came under inferno fire fired at it from the east.

Most of the tanks were hit and left in battle with only two tanks.

"We fired on every Syrian tank we saw, but they did not end," Azoulay said.

"At one point I saw a rising figure in my tank. My fear was that it was a Syrian soldier who was going to insert a grenade into our tank. I began to hear arguments in Hebrew and calmed down," he recalled.

The argument was between Gringold and Azulai's tank commander and his crew.

"He said to our commander 'Get off the tank, from here I continue.' It was a strange sight - a young officer arrives and almost takes over the tank," he described.

"He did not want to talk about the war."

Azoulay and his family (Photo: Courtesy of the family)

Gringold, a commander in the 188th Brigade, had arrived from his home and had boarded the Golan a few hours earlier. "That we do not know and in connection we are called 'Zvika Force'," Azoulay recalled. "I am still wearing jeans and a white shirt and in front of us is a sea of ​​Syrian tanks. The truth? I do not know how we were not hit, "he said." There were moments when I was sure that this was it, that we too 'were going' .... They were like a swarm of ants. We were left with only two tanks. A tank that rescued the wounded and we. The tank that led the wounded returned and we were left alone in the sector. "Where Azoulay and his comrades in battle, this time with another tank commander.

In 2016, Azoulay repeated the same events, in the presence of another wave of publications that sought to shatter the story of "Zvika's Power." This time Azoulay admitted that he was angry that part of the tank crew had been erased from memory; "We are talking about 'Zvika's force, not a single person. We are talking about a tank that has three other crew members, but Zvika's team has been abandoned. They wanted to create an aura and publicity for one person. Not only I ask, others - why not talk about the team "Where each one is related to the other? He could not have done anything without us," he said.

After the war, Azoulay returned home with a serious injury to one of his ears.

Michelin said that the few times he was asked about the war he would say, "'Enough, leave, it was and it's over.'"

His close friend, Haim Ohayon, who worked with him in the Kiryat Shmona municipality, also said that he heard almost nothing from Mazoulay about the war.

On his role in the municipality he said that "it was very important to Eli to help and accompany the workers".

In 2000, Azoulay retired from his job at the municipality.

Together with Ohayon and other friends who retired with them, they headed the municipal pensioners' committee and organized many activities for them.

In recent years, Azoulay's health has deteriorated to the point that he needs a kidney transplant.

A few months ago, a ray of light appeared when a kidney donor was found for him, but finally the medical tests determined that no match had been found that would allow the kidney transplant in his body.

Two and a half weeks ago, Eli Azulai passed away and was laid to rest in the Kiryat Shmona cemetery, the city he loved so much.

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