Moshe Carmel, Israeli general, 92
JERUSALEM -- General Moshe Carmel, who led the Israeli army's capture of Haifa and the northern Galilee region during the 1948-49 Mideast war, died Thursday in Tel Aviv. He was 92.
General Carmel was born in Minsk in what was then Poland and is now Belarus, and he moved to British Mandate of Palestine in 1924 at 13.
He was active in Jewish military activities against Palestinian Arabs from the mid-1930s and was imprisoned by British authorities between 1939 and 1941 for his activities on behalf of the Hagana, the Jewish military force that predated Israel's creation in 1948.
As commander of the northern front during the 1948-49 Mideast war, General Carmel was responsible for Israel's capture of the northern cities of Haifa and Acre and the Galilee region. He retired from the Israeli army with the rank of general in 1958.
General Carmel served as a member of Israel's Knesset from the late 1950s through the early '70s, and was transport minister.
