Yossi Ben Hanan

Aluf (res.) Yossi Ben Hanan (Hebrew: יוסי בן-חנן) was born in Jerusalem, Mandate for Palestine in 1945. His father, Michael Ben Hanan served as one of the top Haganah commanders in Jerusalem.

Yossi Ben Hanan
General Yossi Ben Hanan 1994
Native name	יוסי בן-חנן
Born	(1945-02-23) February 23, 1945 Jerusalem, Mandate for Palestine
Allegiance	Israel
Years of service	1963-1994
Rank	Aluf
Unit	Armored Corps
Commands held	7th Brigade
Battles/wars	Six-Day War, War of Attrition, Yom Kippur War
Awards	Medal of Courage

During the Six-Day War Ben Hanan was a lieutenant, serving as the operations officer of the 7th Armored Brigade. He was featured on the cover of Life magazine after the war which showed him triumphantly clutching an AK-47 rifle,[1] under the caption "Israeli soldier cools off in the Suez Canal".[2]

In 1973, while on his honeymoon in Nepal, then lieutenant colonel Ben Hanan learned of the start of the Yom Kippur War. Over the course of a few days, he returned to Israel and arrived on the Golan Heights on October 8, 1973.[3] Ben Hanan participated in fighting with the Syrians in the holding defence of the Golan Heights along with then lieutenant colonel Avigdor Kahalani, and was wounded for the first time, but refused to be evacuated and continued fighting.[4]

On October 9, 1973, Ben Hanan took command of the tank company put together from the remnants of the decimated 188th Armored Brigade by Shmuel Askarov, one of the survivors.[5] Leading his command in a battle against overwhelming numbers of Syrian T-62s in the area north of Quneitra, Ben Hanan restored the tactical situation and penetrated with his unit deep into Syrian territory. On October 12, 1973 he was wounded for the third time, but refused to evacuate.[6] He had led a further attack during which his tank was hit by a Sagger anti-tank missile, and Ben Hanan was wounded for the fourth time and rescued from behind enemy lines by Yonatan Netanyahu, a member of the IDF's elite Sayeret Matkal and brother of future Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.[5]

Ben Hanan received the second highest decoration, the Medal of Courage for his part in the battles of the Yom Kippur War.[6]

Later Yossi Ben Hanan commanded the 7th Armored Brigade, the IDF R&D department, the Israeli National Security College, and the Armored Corps. As a reservist, he attained the rank of Aluf (second highest rank of the IDF). During 1997-2008 he was head of the Israeli Defense Ministry's developing countries defense assistance division, SIBAT.[7]