Major General (res.) Gil Yarom, who was a fighter in the Paratroopers Patrol during the War of the Galilee, is currently authoring the book "Flying Backwards" on his military service
The late Sergeant Yoav Ayalon // Photo: Courtesy of the family
These days, when stories from the IDF's presence in Lebanon, from the 1982 Galilee war to the withdrawal from the security zone in 2000, are published without filters in various media - especially in the Facebook group "Stories from Lebanon - What happened in the posts" - writes Ras Gil (Jerome), a fighter in the paratroopers patrol that enlisted in August 1980, wrote of his period of military service saturated with his activities.
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The book is named "Birds Fly Back," and on the occasion of Memorial Day to the victims of Israel's systems and hostilities, it reveals a chapter in the book called "Tu Bab Yoav the late Beirut" - in memory of his teammate, the late Sergeant Yoav Ayalon, who died in the war Peace of the Galilee in the al-'Uzai refugee camp in the capital of Lebanon, Beirut.
"I was already out of the room on my way to replace Yoav with a guard, when I remembered my father's words on a recent visit to the house:" My age don't be that smart, I know you, don't overlap and always put on a helmet and cap Going out.
I went back to the room, put on the ref and went out again to replace Yoav. Thirty seconds delay.
The blast caught me at the door, from the blast I flew three feet to the wall, I rose quickly, swinging like a drunk, my ears ringing from the blast, trying to stabilize and take a breath and out running. "Terrorists attack us," the thought goes through my head.
I stand alone in the courtyards of the al-'Uzai refugee camp in Beirut, from the room next to my father's screams, 'I was injured! habit! I've got a habit! '
Yoav! Yoav! Where's Yoav? I'm looking, running to where Yoav's position was, there's no trace of Yoav and the position. The weapon is pinned to the shoulder, I'm looking for the terrorists, the offensive can come from anywhere. The crowding here is terrible, the courtyard of the house kisses other courtyards, house in house in house.
Everything mixes, the search for Yoav, the attempt to understand where we are being shot, the screams of the injured man from the room. Quiet silence of the place instantly became an erupting volcano of shouts.
I found Yoav in the middle of the courtyard, under a pile of cement bags sprinkled with a light strand of hair and the rest of the body covered with cement. I bend over and clean the face covered with cement powder, it's Yoav, he's buried under the sacks that exploded, he doesn't move, his eyes are closed and he's unconscious.
No time, the event is underway, we are under attack by terrorists I thought, must not stop, the threat must be removed before the injured are treated. We are alone without the commanders coming out for briefing. I take command. Our medic's back arrived, I refer him to Joab. I run toward the walkie talkie. The speech procedure in bloom from my memory and I finally read, "We have been seriously injured and moderately injured, terrorists attacked us. for'. A few minutes later the commanders and paramedics arrive, stretchers open, the evacuation begins, Yoav is seriously wounded, my father is medium wounded, they are evacuated to the IDF.
She fell from the sky, just like that, without warning, in eight and two minutes she landed from all places in the world on a sack wall. Hamlet in Yoav's position and exploded. One mortar bomb, and that was it.
These were not terrorists who shot at us and attacked us, but an 82 mm, inaccurate mortar bomb that launched terrorists at the area where we were. She could have fallen ten yards forward, or back, but she landed exactly on the stack of cement bags that Carney and I piled to build a guarded post for the guard.
Exerting pressure on PLO forces
The night before, on the eve of Tu Bab, we embarked on an operation to conquer the al-'Uzai refugee camp as part of the pressure exerted by the IDF on the besieged PLO forces in western Beirut. We began marching in two columns in the darkness of the full moon at night, me and Yoav part of the point force Going forward, Yoav on the left with the mag, I trust Yoav, Yoav, with tremendous physical powers, not a big talker, not straining, but one who, in truth, when he gives everything you want to be with him, navigates at the end of the track, one hundred and twenty Miles, he came first in a huge gap, "What happened to Yoav?" We asked, 'I had to squeeze a little so I clicked,' he replied, such was Yoav, a tall, strong, indifferent, Jerusalemite whose head was in his motorcycles and his brother Giora.
After marching, we detect the strength of our tanks in the midst of an exchange of fire with terrorists and launch at the tanks. It looked like someone opened the gates of hell and gave us a peek inside. A fire opened on us from the refugee camp and we were sent to occupy the house from which we were fired. The house was booby-trapped and two soldiers were injured. Dawn rises, we settle down at home, the two wounded on stretchers waiting to be evacuated. The commander's witness sends us to partition into the rooms and calls me 'Age, start with you guarding'. "No problem," I replied, Yoav standing next to me and asks "Age, do you mind I'll save first?", "No problem, start with you and come and replace you for another hour," I replied. At seven in the morning, I went into one of the rooms and lay down on the bed to rest. At seven-fifty-eight, I get out of bed, zip my helmet and plan to go outside to replace Yoav.
"Yoav died in flight"
At three in the afternoon, the commander's witnesses arrive and gather all the members of the team. "Yoav died on a flight on his way to Israel. The doctors tried to save his life. The injuries were too severe." Silence descends upon the room.
For years when the images come back and the unresolved thought, Yoav who the hell asked you to intervene. You were not involved at all, the Commander handed me the card with the angel of death on it. What jumped at you, what was it urgent for you to keep first? I was saved in that house and you are Joab, arrested at age 20 as a frozen picture on the wall. "