Roie was one of the war’s first casualties. A bullet hit him in the stomach and he lost a finger. His wife, whom he’d married just eight months before the war, showed us an x-ray of the bullet lodged in her husband’s stomach. The doctors told him he lived because the bullet prevented him from bleeding out.
He was in a good mood during our visit. His wife joked that he got injured to “test” if she was a loyal wife. From their comments it was clear she’d passed the test. She told us that CNN interviewed her husband for hours but aired only 30 seconds of the footage.
Gavriel’s mother had moved to Israel with her family from New York’s Lower East Side at age 14. She did not want her children ever to leave Israel and never registered them as U.S. citizens.
A missile fragment hit Gavriel in the skull. He lost an eye and hearing in one ear, and needed further surgery. When we arrived, his commander, himself just 26, was visiting. (The commander had recently completed his obligatory service and volunteered for the operation in Gaza.) Despite Gavriel’s condition, his mother came to bring him home for Shabbat. He would return on Sunday for further rehabilitation. Other soldiers, depending on their condition, also looked forward to Shabbat visits with their families.
During my short trip we heard amazing stories. Almost everywhere I went people were discussing the war. My cousin’s children slept each night in their home’s safe room. One explosion was so loud they thought their house had been hit. Soon after, Israeli soldiers realized terrorists were driving a truck filled with gas containers and gas balloons. One soldier quickly shot out the tires and windshield. Another jumped into the vehicle, grabbed the keys, and shut the engine. One of my cousins had been three cars behind that truck.
On our visit to the hospital we gave each soldier e-mails and cards written by children from all over the world wishing them a refuah sheleimah as well as needed funds raised by IYIM. They were all surprised and touched that so many people cared about them.
One of the soldiers we didn’t meet directly was named Ohad.We could not enter his room. His wounds rendered his right side at least temporarily paralyzed. He could not speak and his only communication with his mother since his arrival at the hospital had been one thumbs-up gesture.
She told us how difficult it was to spend each day at her son’s bedside while his condition did not improve. At the same time she dealt with her inability to return to work and earn a living. She told us that if her son remained non-responsive she would place honey on his lips on Rosh Hashanah so that he might realize it was the chag.
His mother requested that we daven and ask others to do so for Ohad ben Erica Esther.
Hashem should protect the IDF and grant a refuah sheleimah to all those who are wounded defending and protecting Eretz Yisrael.