A member of the Akiba movement, he was also on the Ghetto's Police Force before resigning on 22 July 1942. Kanal was in command of Szmerling's attempted assassination. Within
the JFO, he was the first to establish contacts with the Revisionist Zionists. He fought in January 1943, and was in command of the Central Ghetto during the Insurrection. Having left the Ghetto via the sewers, he deported to Auschwitz where he died at the age of 23.