Metzudat Koach

The Nabi Yusha fort, renamed Metzudat Koach (Hebrew: מצודת כ"ח), is a police fort built by the British Mandate administration during the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine and currently used by the Israel Border Police.[1] The site around the fort contains a stone monument and a new museum[2] (founded in 2014), together constituting the Metzudat Koach Memorial, which commemorates 28 Israeli soldiers who died during the 1948 conquest of the strategically important fort.[3] The fort and observation point is located in the Upper Galilee, close to an abandoned Shia shrine of Nabi Yusha ("Prophet Joshua").[4] The Hebrew word "ko'ach" (כח) has a double meaning: as a common noun it means "strength", while its numerical value according to gematria is 28, the number of the fallen soldiers.

Nabi Yusha police fortress from Qadas 1939
Nabi Yusha police fortress. 1948

The Metzudat Koach memorial is currently part of the Israel National Trail.[1]

History

The building is a Tegart fort[5] commissioned by the British and constructed by Solel Boneh, the fort was a key observation point on the Naftali heights, overlooking the Hula Valley, and used to monitor the Palestine/Lebanon border.

By mid-April 1948, the British army had evacuated most of Upper Galilee. A number of key points were subsequently occupied by Arab forces, including the police fort at Nabi Yusha. This fort commanded the main road to Upper Galilee and the routes to the Jewish settlements of Ramot Naftali and Manara. The Palmach understood that this observation point had a strategic importance for the safety and future of the kibbutzim below.

In the evening hours of April 15, the police station was attacked by a company composed of Golani, Palmach and irregulars from nearby Jewish settlements, which moved in two armored cars and two armored Egged buses. The attacking force was forced to withdraw due to intense fire. Four Jews were killed.

On April 20, a second attempt was made to occupy the fort by a force from the third Palmach battalion. A small force succeeded in breaking the barriers and reaching the wall, but two of its members were hit, which delayed the detonation of the explosives until their evacuation. During their evacuation, enemy fire was directed at them and many of the unit's soldiers were killed. The troops fought to the last man. Altogether, 22 Jews were killed in the battle.

During the night of May 16/17, a company of the third battalion of the Yiftach Brigade occupied the fort after driving away the enemy. On the next day, two of the soldiers were killed.

Yiftach Brigade at Nabi Yusha. 16th May 1948

In total, 28 Jewish soldiers fell in the battles for the occupation of the fort, and "Metzudat HaKoach" ("Fort of the 28") is today named after them.[6]

The 28 soldiers

A monument to the fallen in Metzudat Koach
DateNameAgeRankBirthplace[7]
20/04/48AhaliJoseph20CorporalGedera
20/04/48AkermanAmnon19PrivateHaifa
20/04/48AmikamBoaz19Private, paramedicHaifa
20/04/48ArmoniYizhar18PrivateJerusalem
20/4/48BarzilaiAryeh19PrivateLithuania
17/05/48Ben BassatMeir20PrivateBulgaria, Plovdiv
13/05/48Ben NevetEliezer21CorporalTurkey
20/02/48Cherkasky[8]David22Lieutenant, Platoon commanderHaifa
20/04/48CohenAvraham18PrivateJerusalem
20/04/48FriedmanPhilon[9]18PrivatePoland
FutermanEliezer17
15/04/48GutmanJoseph20PrivateTel Aviv
20/04/48HorowitzZvi19PrivateHaifa
20/04/48KochbaHanan19PrivateGermany
22/04/48LevinskyYisrael19PrivatePoland
20/04/48MizrachiShlomo19PrivateJerusalem
20/04/48MoskowitzMalachi19PrivateTel Aviv
20/04/48NeemanMoshe19CorporalTel Aviv
OhaliYosef
20/04/48PotermanEliezer18CorporalPoland, Nova Korsha
20/04/48RauchMordechai26PrivatePoland
20/02/24ShevetEliezer20PrivateNahalal
20/02/24ShwartzDavid26PrivateCzechoslovakia
15/04/48StashiMoshe18PrivateBulgaria, Sofia
20/04/48TolitzinskyYuval19PrivateHaifa
20/04/48WissotzkyNehemia20PrivateJerusalem
20/04/48YekutieliAmnon19Corporal, Squad commanderJerusalem
20/04/48YizraelowitzYitczhak25PrivatePoland
view near Fort Koach down to the Hula valley

References

  1. The Koach Fortress by Peter Abelow
  2. Website of the HaReut Museum
  3. On the monument and inside the museum a Bible verse from 2 Samuel 1:19 is written (in Hebrew): "The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places. How are the mighty fallen."
  4. http://www.postcardsfromisrael.com/north.html Northern Exposure
  5. Roza el-Eini (2006). Mandated Landscape. Routledge. p. 486.
  6. palmach.org.il Palmach Info Center
  7. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-06-01. Retrieved 2010-11-22.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. http://info.palmach.org.il/show_item.asp?levelId=42865&itemId=8591&itemType=0
  9. http://www.geni.com/people/Philon-Friedman/6000000002754129199
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