Yishai Zimmerman

Yishai Zimmerman was born on 22 November 1933 at Kibbutz Ein Harod, in the Jezreel Valley in what was then Mandatory Palestine. His parents were among the pioneers of the valley and early members of the kibbutz. During the split in the kibbutz movement in the early 1950s, a dispute over party politics, his family divided: he moved with his father to the new Ein Harod Ihud, while his mother and his brother Malachi remained at Ein Harod Meuhad. He grew up in the same class as Meir Har-Zion, with whom he later served. As a young man he also took a civilian flying course at Megiddo.

Zimmerman was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces in 1952 and served as a tank commander in the 82nd Battalion of the Armoured Corps. When Ariel Sharon formed Unit 101 in 1953, recruits came through personal recommendation, and Zimmerman joined alongside Har-Zion. According to his son, Sharon had him released from military prison, where he was being held for leaving base without permission, so that he could join. He served in the unit from its creation until it was merged into the paratroopers, taking part in the reprisal operations of the period. In 1955 he was one of five men, including Har-Zion, who killed five Bedouin in retaliation for the murder of Har-Zion's sister Shoshana, an episode recorded in Israeli histories of the unit.

After the formation of the paratroopers' reconnaissance unit he served there as an officer. On 2 November 1955, during Operation Volcano, Second Lieutenant Zimmerman commanded a sub unit in the battle for the Sabha outpost in the Nitzana area. His force stormed the enemy command post and mortar position; when most of the officers and many soldiers were wounded, he continued on his own to clear the enemy positions until resistance ended. He received the Medal of Courage for this action.

In the reserves he reached the rank of major. He commanded a support company in the 1956 Sinai campaign, joined the reconnaissance unit of the 80th Brigade, and was shot in the hand during the battle for Jerusalem in the Six Day War. In the Yom Kippur War he served in the 582nd reconnaissance and anti tank battalion, which was moved to the southern front and fought in the crossing of the Suez Canal, and he was wounded again. In August 1982, during the First Lebanon War, he and another reserve officer took a Cessna light aircraft from Beirut International Airport and flew it to Israel. Air force fighters scrambled, intercepted it and escorted it to Haifa airport. He was tried, sentenced to a month in prison and a fine of 15,000 shekels, and demoted to lieutenant; the plane was returned to Lebanon. He nevertheless continued in the reserves as a tank transporter driver past the age of 80, serving in the Second Lebanon War and Operation Protective Edge.

Outside the army Zimmerman spent his working life in the garage of Ein Harod Ihud as a mechanic and metalworker. He was an inventor and competed in the Technion's TechnoRosh creativity contest, taking second place in 2011 and first place in 2012, 2014 and 2018, when he won at 84. He was active in the protests against the 2005 Gaza disengagement plan initiated by his former commander Sharon, and in 2020 campaigned to place a Kfir fighter jet on display at his kibbutz. He was married to Raaya, who came from Kibbutz Mizra, and they had six children. His son Amal Zimmerman became a lieutenant colonel pilot in the Israeli Air Force and later commanded the Israel Police air unit with the rank of brigadier. He had 15 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren.

Yishai Zimmerman died on the morning of Monday 26 October 2026 at Kibbutz Ein Harod Ihud, aged 92; some reports gave his age as 93. His death was reported the same day by Ynet, Israel Hayom, Walla, Srugim and Channel 14, which described him as one of the last fighters of Unit 101. He was buried at his kibbutz the following day.

Zimmerman belonged to the small group of soldiers in Unit 101 and the early paratroopers whose methods shaped the commando and reconnaissance tradition of the Israeli army. His son described him as mischievous and fearless, a man who did not know the word fear. His long reserve service, his Medal of Courage and the unauthorised flight from Beirut made him a well known figure of the founding generation of the IDF.