Mohamed Hussein Tantawi
Among the participants of the battle were Mohamed Hussein Tantawi and Ehud Barak, then lieutenant colonels. Tantawi commanded an infantry battalion under the 16th Infantry Brigade. He engaged Reshef's armor during October 16 and later Mordechai's paratroopers during the night of October 16/17, and was decorated for valor during the battle. Barak commanded an armored battalion during the battle and personally led the armored effort to extricate the Israeli paratroopers. Both men would later serve as Ministers of Defense in their respective nations and encounter each other again in that capacity. Another notable participant was future Israeli general and politician Yitzhak Mordechai, then an Israeli paratrooper battalion commander.