Yaki Hetz

Yaakov Haymovitz, later Hetz, was born in Tel Aviv on 6 February 1946 and grew up there. In a 2017 interview with Maariv he recalled that many people on his street had numbers tattooed on their arms and that the Holocaust "breathed down our necks", which shaped his sense of what was at stake in 1967. He told Arutz Sheva that in the days before the Six-Day War he saw Jordanian shells land in Tel Aviv, near Masaryk Square, and in Kfar Saba. He also said he later dreamed that his grandfather, a great rabbi, had watched over him in battle.

Hetz attended the Yehuda HaMaccabi primary school and the Ironi Dalet high school in Tel Aviv. After his regular army service he enrolled at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, and was a first year student when he was called up in June 1967. He told Maariv that when he returned he could not study and failed every exam, until the dean, a veteran of the 1948 war, accommodated him. He went on to complete his studies and worked as an engineer at Rafael.

Hetz served in the Paratroopers Brigade and was a reserve private in the 66th Battalion of the 55th Paratroopers Brigade in the Six-Day War. In the battle for Ammunition Hill on the night of 6 June 1967 he took a bazooka from a wounded comrade and moved up the column. When platoon commander Yoram Elyashiv was hit, Hetz took over at the head of the platoon and advanced along the perimeter trench from bunker to bunker. At the great bunker, left almost on his own, he kept up fire against the Jordanian Legionnaires inside, was joined by David Shalom and Yehuda Kendel, and with explosives brought forward by an officer the bunker was blown up, ending the battle. His Chief of Staff's citation became the Medal of Courage, signed by Lieutenant General David Elazar in April 1973.

He later completed an officers' course in the reserves. In the Yom Kippur War he was a lieutenant commanding a platoon of Company C, Battalion 564 of the 55th Brigade, attached from 11 October 1973 to the 217th Armoured Brigade and the 142nd Tank Battalion. On 17 October 1973, after the paratroopers' battle at the Chinese Farm, he led an armoured personnel carrier crew back into ground under fire to find and evacuate a badly wounded soldier, saving his life. The Gvura heritage site lists his reserve rank as major; Walla reported that he reached lieutenant colonel.

Hetz spent most of his adult life at Rafael, Israel's weapons development authority (later Rafael Advanced Defense Systems), where he said he worked on things for the infantry, who had been neglected compared with the air force and armour. He received the Israel Defense Prize in 1982 for his work there. Dvir Bashan, a reserve company commander, credited him with being at the forefront of the IDF's advanced anti tank array. Hetz also conceived the idea that became the Maoz (Spike Firefly) loitering munition: he told Mako that the best weapon on Ammunition Hill was the grenade, which could not go around corners, so he wanted something that could. He built a prototype in 1987, before the technology made it practical, and Rafael began developing the current system in 2003. It has since been used by IDF troops.

Hetz was married to Hani and they had eight children. The family lived in the Yokneam Moshava in northern Israel, and four of the children settled nearby in the same regional council area. Neighbours remembered the family as welcoming and hospitable, and tributes described him as a family man first and foremost. He also kept his own YouTube channel, where he shared his account of the battle.

Hetz described himself as not religious, yet said he could find no explanation for how he survived and felt that someone was watching over him. He told Maariv that already during the War of Attrition he concluded that wars are not the solution and that a settlement must be reached, and that despite being a combat paratrooper his views were close to those of Professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz. "I think a peace settlement is more important than territory," he said, while adding that he doubted any Arab leader would dare sign one. He spoke movingly of meeting Jordanian veterans who had fought against him in 1967, now grandfathers like him. Tributes recalled that he acted on the conviction that those who want peace must prepare for war, and that the soldiers who came after him should be better equipped than he and his comrades had been.

Hetz's story is told at the Six-Day War Museum at Ammunition Hill, and for decades he was part of the site's extended family, one of the fighters who turned the battlefield into a centre of memory and education. He gave hundreds of talks at schools, pre-military academies and officers' courses, and lectured to the IDF General Staff Forum on the hill in 2012. At Rafael, CEO Yoav Turgeman said he represented the link between operational experience, engineering thinking and technological vision. The Maoz drone that grew out of his idea is in service with the IDF.

Medal of Courage (Itur HaOz) for the battle of Ammunition Hill, 1967 (citation signed April 1973). Israel Defense Prize, 1982, for his work at Rafael. Certificate of appreciation from the head of Southern Command, Major General Tal Russo, March 2012, for the rescue of a wounded soldier near the Chinese Farm in 1973. Torch lighter at the official ceremony for Israel's 69th Independence Day, 2017.

Hetz published his memoir Tvilat Esh: Krav Givat HaTahmoshet me'Einav shel Lohem Pashut (Baptism by Fire: the battle of Ammunition Hill through the eyes of a simple soldier), issued by Hai BeSefer and launched at Ammunition Hill on 10 January 2023. He was interviewed by Arutz Sheva (2007), Radio 103FM (2017 and 2022), Maariv (2017) and Israel Hayom (2017), and appears in Kan's series Maslul 67 and in the documentary Kaf HaGoral about the battle. His deed is remembered in Yoram Taharlev's song Givat HaTahmoshet.

Hetz died on Tuesday 6 October 2026, at the age of 80, as reported by Ynet, Walla and other Israeli media. The cause and place of death have not been made public. Ammunition Hill chairman Menachem Landau and Rafael CEO Yoav Turgeman paid tribute. His funeral was scheduled for Wednesday 7 October 2026 at 16:30 at the Yokneam cemetery.