Yaakov Banai Yaakov Banai ( ) born Yaakov Tunkel , Alias Mazal ( ) ( March 30 , 1920 – January 7 , 2009 ) served as the commander of the Lehi movement ' s combat unit . Banai was a senior Lehi member who masterminded numerous military encounters against British and Arab targets during the Mandate period and the Israel War of Independence . Early life . Yaakov Banai ( Tunkel ) was born on March 20 , 1920 in Baranovichi , Poland . He was the third child of four children . His father was Shraga ( Feivel ) Tunkel and his mother Brakha née Sokolovsky . The family owned a barber shop and his father served as the head of the town ' s volunteer fire department . His father was the first cousin of Yosef Tunkel , the Yiddish humorist known as Der Tunkeler . Both of his parents and two of his siblings perished in the Holocaust . As a youth , Banai was a member of Betar , the Revisionist Zionist youth movement and was a founding member of the Irgun in Poland and leader of the Eastern Poland branch of the party . He graduated from the state Gymnasium high school in 1938 and studied law for one year at Vilnius University ( 1939 – 1940 ) . In 1941 , following the Soviet invasion and shortly before the German invasion of Lithuania , Banai obtained a Sugihara visa and made his way to Israel via Turkey with other members of the Betar . Combat operations . On his way to Israel he was informed of the internal split within the Irgun and chose to join forces with Abraham Stern ( Yair ) to help form the Lehi . Once in Israel he was ordered to distance himself from Tel Aviv to avoid the attention of the authorities and he enlisted as a watchman in the Jezreel Valley where he commenced forming a local branch of the Lehi . In early 1943 he relocated to Haifa where he enlisted members , among whom was Eliahu Hakim ( whose alias was Benny ) . Hakim was later hanged for carrying out the assassination of Lord Moyne in Cairo . In Haifa , Banai received the alias Mazal ( meaning " Luck " ) after he managed to successfully evade capture during a surprise inspection conducted by British detectives . After a shoot - out with British detectives , he moved to Tel Aviv , where he joined the Executive Committee of Lehi . He changed his last name to Banai in order to confuse British detectives who were on the look out for a " Polish Jew " . Banai participated in a long list of combat missions including the preparations and attack on the British high commissioner in Palestine , Sir Harold MacMichael . This attack was claimed to be retaliation for the Struma disaster . He also took part in the assassination of Thomas Wilkin , the head of the Criminal Investigation Department ( CID ) Jewish Affairs Bureau . Wilkin was assassinated for his involvement in the killing of Abraham Stern . In his memoirs , Banai recalled that the order to assassinate Wilkin came directly from Yitzhak Shamir , the head of Lehi who eventually became the Prime Minister of Israel . Banai was appointed to head the Lehi ’ s combat forces which was renamed under him as the " Fighting Brigade " . He masterminded and participated in combat operations such as attacks on military units and police , demolition of bridges , an attempt to free jailed prisoners in Jerusalem that was coordinated with the Irgun , the capture of weapons from a military base in Holon and a British military warehouse on HaYarkon Street in Tel Aviv . Following Shamir ’ s imprisonment , Banai remained in the underground from where he oversaw all of Lehi ’ s department ’ s and branches in Israel . Under his direction , dozens of combat operations were planned and carried out , a portion of them as part of the Jewish Resistance Movement during which the three underground movements ( Haganah , Irgun , Lehi ) joined forces against the British . During this period , the railyards near the Haifa port were attacked , the Sarona military headquarters ( today HaKirya in Tel Aviv ) was bombed , Sarafand ( today Tzrifin military base ) was attacked , the CID offices in Haifa were attacked , airplanes at the Kfar Sirkin air base were destroyed , hospitalized prisoners were freed as were female prisoners from the Petah Tikva police station , and he participated in a bank robbery at the Tel Aviv branch of the Barclays Bank . Banai pioneered the use of explosive vehicles , which were used against the CID offices in Haifa , the Sarona military headquarters and the Jaffa Sarai . Service in the Israel Defense Forces . Following the United Nations decision on the partition plan , Lehi ' s turned its attention to the confrontation with the Arabs . During this period Banai participated in numerous combat operations that included the bombing of homes in Arab villages , the bombing of the Sarai in Jaffa ( the Arab gathering point for attacks on Tel Aviv ) , the bombing of the Arab gangs ' headquarters in Haifa , and an attempt to bomb the Arab headquarters in Nablus . With the formation of the Israel Defense Forces , Banai enlisted as a captain in the 8th Brigade , commanded the Lehi Battalion and served as the liaison officer between the army ' s Lehi units and Brigadier Yitzhak Sadeh , the commander of the Palmach . Banai quickly rose to become the battalion ' s Chief of Staff . Following the war , he served for ten years as a battalion commander in charge of the Dan district in the Civil Defense Forces . Post - military career . Banai authored the book " Hayalim Almonim " ( , " Anonymous Soldiers " ) based on his experiences in the Lehi . The book is considered the most comprehensive account of the underground movement . In 2006 he edited " Mekorot LeToldot Tnu ' at Lohmei Herut Israel ( Lehi ) " ( , " Sources on the History of the Lehi Movement " , published by Yair Publishing House ) . Banai frequently lectured to soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces , in schools , to youth groups , at community centers , and throughout the country . Banai worked for the Egged bus company and was a member of its Secretariat as well as a manager . Prior to his retirement in 1997 , he served as the director of an assisted living facility in Ramat Gan . In 2000 , he was awarded the key to the city of Ramat Gan and was the Chairman of an NGO that worked to preserve the historical legacy of the Lehi . Personal life . Banai married Hanna Kruger in 1945 . They had two children — a son named Shraga and a daughter named Nili .