Shalom was born in 1924 to Sarah and Zadok Mahpoud, who had seven children. Like other Yemenite Jewish children, he was educated in a traditional way, which implanted in him love of the People and the Land of Israel. Therefore, once he grew up, he decided to make aliyah. Together with one of his brothers, he made aliyah in 1942 via Egypt, illegally. He found himself an apartment on HaCarmel Street in Tel Aviv, at the edge of Kerem HaTeimanim. For his livelihood, he started working as a cobbler with one of his relatives. In the Land of Israel, he took his father’s name Zadok as a last name.

When the underground war against the British intensified, he joined Lehi. He was involved in a number of ongoing operations, until he was sent to a weapons course. He was then attached to the operations division and various missions.

He met Miriam “Yael” Levi, and after some time they decided to get married. The date they picked was December 9,1947. However, on that same day, Shalom went out on a mission, one of the attacks “to remove the British from our streets.” Lehi members attacked British policemen and soldiers on patrol, by foot or vehicle. Shalom waited in ambush for the British at Tel Aviv’s Kikar HaMoshavot. When the British armored cars appeared, the Lehi men opened fire, one of them throwing a Molotov cocktail. The British responded with automatic fire. Shalom was hit and died of his injuries. Lehi announced: “The fighter Yoav has been struck down while fulfilling his combat role, attacking the British murderers on 26 Kislev 5708. May his memory be honored!”

Shalom was buried the next day in Nahalat Yitzhak. It took seven years for him to receive recognition from the state for his sacrifice, and he was then re-interred in a military cemetery for eternal rest.

His mother passed away in Yemen, while his father made aliyah in 1949.