The Solider That Sacrificed His Life - נתן אלבז- החייל שהקריב את חייו

The solider that sacrificed his life:

The 21-years old Natan Elbaz, loved the army. It was his only home in Israel. The tent and his bed were the only places that belonged to him.

Outside the army, he didn’t have any family, or relatives. And even so- he was happy.

His family lived far away from Israel, in the town- Tzfaro, in Morocco. Natan was the oldest of five children.

 In Morocco, he joined Hebrew classes, and the people that dreamed about making Aliyah to Eretz-Israel. Especially after the birth of Israel, Natan and his friends were excited about making Aliyah.

When Natan celebrated his 18^th birthday, he decided to make his dream come true, and make Aliyah to Eretz-Israel. But he faced a stubborn opposement from his parents.

One night, he told his parents his going out to the movies, and didn’t come back. One of Natan’s friends came to his worrying parents, to calm them and tell them that Natan went to Eretz-Israel.

On February 10^th 1954 the army was preparing for war so each solider got two Grenades. The soldiers were to put a detonation ____ in them and be ready to use them.

Now, after the preparation for war was canceled, Natan Elbaz and another solider volunteered to disarm the grandees and place them back at the weapon________. Their mood was great and Natan was talking about the party they were going to have at night.

The detonation on one of the grandees Natan was holding got loose.

No one will ever know how that happened. Everything happened with in 4 seconds. Four seconds, that is the amount of time it takes a burning _____ in the grande until it reaches the ____ and the grenade explodes into tiny pieces. Four seconds which are an entire world.

Outside there were people. Natan’s friends, from his unit, were standing near the tent. As soon as Natan saw the grenade was about to explode he screamed: “ Grenade!” As soon as the soldiers heard they took cover. They lay on the floor and awaited nervously what was to come.

In the mean time Natan jumped out of the tent. He was headed toward the fence. He undoubtedly wanted to get rid of the grenade; but to his ______ he saw a few soldiers in the area, then he started running.

He ran with all his might toward the canal in the edge of the camp. Maybe he wanted to thru the grenade and save his life, and maybe he already knew that he was about to sacrifice his young life. Natan did not make it to the canal. Those who followed him saw him stop, fasten the hand with the grenade to his chest and lay flat on the ground, his body covering the grenade. Then the explosion came. The grenade exploded in the hand that was bent underneath Natan Elbaz’s chest.