13 Facts About Yehiel Dresner

Yehiel Dov Dresner was an Irgun member in pre-state Mandatory Palestine and one of 12 Olei Hagardom.

Yehiel Dresner was 15 when Shlomo Ben-Yosef was hanged: the incident had a powerful effect and instilled in him an urge for vengeance against the British.

Yehiel Dresner volunteered as a guide for the Betar youth squads.

Yehiel Dresner initially went into hiding in Tel Aviv before moving to Zikhron Ya'akov and finding work as a guard in the vineyards and eventually came to command a military training course at a secret Irgun training camp between Zikhron Ya'akov and Binyamina.

Yehiel Dresner then moved to Hadera and was placed in charge of the local Irgun branch while hiding from the British and the Haganah, which was then carrying out the Hunting Season.

In July 1945, Yehiel Dresner took part in an Irgun operation to blow up the Yibne railway bridge, and in November 1945, he participated in the Night of the Trains, a joint operation between the Irgun, Lehi, and Palmach.

Yehiel Dresner was part of an Irgun unit that attacked the Lydda railway station, during which several locomotives and a number of buildings were blown up, and in which an Irgun fighter, two British security personnel, and two Arab civilians were killed.

Yehiel Dresner went on to serve as a senior Irgun commander in Ramat Gan and Petah Tikva.

Yehiel Dresner personally participated in a February 1946 raid against the RAF airbase at Lydda in which several British military aircraft were destroyed, and an April 1946 arms raid against a Ramat Gan police station which saw a large amount of arms and munitions seized.

Yehiel Dresner was involved in railway sabotage operations, planting mines on railway tracks to derail trains.

On December 29,1946, Yehiel Dresner participated in the Night of the Beatings, an Irgun operation in which British soldiers were abducted and whipped in retaliation of the whipping of an imprisoned Irgun member.

Yehiel Dresner had maintained his Dov Rosenbaum persona from the time he first assumed that identity, and was thus buried under that pseudonym.

Yehiel Dresner is considered a national hero in Israel today, and streets have been named for him.