Ben Tal was severely wounded in a cargo bomb on Mount Dov, shortly after the withdrawal from Lebanon.
Soldiers on Lebanon border fence // Photo: Eyal Margolin
Ben Tal is the first soldier to be wounded after the withdrawal from the security force in Lebanon 20 years ago. He is dealing with a simple physical and mental disability. Recently, a special story was revealed about the late Ghashl Khalil, who was killed in joint operations on the northern border.
"My battalion, 202 of the paratroopers, seized Mount Dov just after the retreat," said Ben Tal. "One morning we opened a pivot, when suddenly My grocer, Khalil, identified something suspicious about the fence. "
Khalil Muhammad Taher, a member of the only Bedouin family from Acre, joined his brother as a tracker, despite being Muslim, and although wounded in operational activities, he insisted on returning to activity. Powerful explosive device. Before the force was able to neutralize it, the explosion exploded, killing Khalil instead and severely injuring Ben. " He turned to me, started talking and then the blast happened. I was seriously injured. "
Ben Tal added: "When Khalil was killed, his small bone flew into my shoulder. For a decade I couldn't get her out of guilt. Only after I was terribly hurt did I take her out and do a funeral service at sea. He was my brother, even if I knew him for a while. short".
Because of the flute, he says, it is important for him to continue talking about the attack. "When he was killed, the Acre imam did not want to bury him and the state had to intervene to give him the funeral he deserved. It is important to me for someone to spread his story, to understand that our blood is no different."
Ben survived the attack, married and brought two children into the world. But he carries to this day not only the physical disability ("I have 22 splinters in the back, legs and hands, hand paralysis and more") but also post-trauma. Responding to the obvious question about dealing with isolation and closure because of the Corona, he replies: "The loneliness is awful. How much can the family and friends share? I have two sons that I am in love with, and they are the reason I stayed alive so they will come to the world.
"The difficulty with post-trauma is terrible. For 20 years I sleep three and a half hours a night, preparing to open a pivot as if nothing happened. It has no cure." He says that for years Facebook did not open until the group "Stories from Lebanon" opened. He said, "It is not easy to read things even after years. It is a devil." Ben also shared his story with the group.
"Post-traumatic fighters and fighters are among us, and many of us don't even know about it," says Idan Kliman, chairman of the IDF Disability Organization.