He was 21, a paratrooper in the 66th Battalion, when the fight for Ammunition Hill reached him. His platoon commander, Yoram Elishiv, was hit. Yaakov Hetz, known to everyone as Yaki, took over and kept leading the men forward under heavy fire. By the time the platoon reached the hill's great bunker, others had been hit as well, and Hetz, left on his own, fought the Jordanian soldiers dug in there.
For that night in June 1967 he was awarded the Medal of Courage. The battle helped open the way to the reunification of Jerusalem, and for decades afterward his name was bound up with it.
Hetz died today (Tuesday) at the age of 80.
Ammunition Hill was not his last war. Six years later he fought in the Yom Kippur War. Some 40 years after that, he received a special commendation for his combat at the Chinese Farm and for rescuing wounded soldiers in the field at risk to his own life.
When the uniform came off, the work continued. At Rafael Advanced Defense Systems he took part over the years in developing advanced combat systems, and in 1982 he won the Israel Defense Prize. Among his ideas was the one that led to the Maoz, an attack drone built for soldiers in the field. He said the idea grew in part out of what he went through on Ammunition Hill, and out of a wish to give the next generation of fighters capabilities that he and his comrades did not have in 1967.
In 2017 he was chosen to light a torch at the state ceremony marking Israel's 69th Independence Day.
He also made himself a keeper of the story. Hetz met with young people and told them about his comrades and the battles he had fought, and in 2023 he published his autobiography, "Baptism of Fire." His story is told at the Six-Day War Museum at Ammunition Hill, where staff said goodbye to him on Tuesday.
"Yaki Hetz was an inseparable part of Ammunition Hill, not only as one of the heroes of the battle to liberate and reunify Jerusalem, but as a man who devoted his life to action, to creation, and to passing on the legacy to future generations," said Menachem Landau, chairman of the site's board of directors.
"For us, he was far more than a fighter and a hero of Israel," Landau added. "He was a member of the household, a partner on the path, and a dear friend. The story of his heroism is memorialized in the Six-Day War Museum on the Hill, but his legacy lives far beyond the walls of the museum."
Ammunition Hill said it bows its head at his passing, shares in the family's grief, and bids a painful farewell to "an extraordinary man who combined in his life heroism, modesty, creativity, and a deep commitment to the State of Israel and to future generations."
Yehi zichro baruch.
