"I felt a slap in the face": The paratrooper was wounded in the Wall Guard - and returned to combat service | Israel today

"It took me two seconds to understand that I was shot. I felt a thud in my leg and started running backwards, shouting 'Shoot me, shoot me.' To Operation The Guardian of the Walls.

These days, Ayalon is celebrating his 21st birthday this week during the liberation holiday.

After being wounded he went through a period of rehabilitation - then insisted on returning and ending his combat service in the 202nd Battalion.

During Operation The Wall Guard, Ayalon, a resident of Jerusalem who immigrated to Israel with his family at the age of 5, jumped with his friends in the Qalqilya sector. The fighters operated for consecutive days in particularly large disturbances, as did Elon as the company commander's liaison. "We started scattering the crowds," he says of the moments leading up to his injury. "One of my friends fired into the air to deter the rioters and then someone from the side shot me. We were always told by the intelligence warnings that it was a possibility, but who believed it would really happen. Most of the protesters were children, we did not expect there to be a shooting."

Seconds after the fighters realized that Ayalon was wounded, they quickly began treating him. "Within seven seconds they put me on a first fixation and another friend dragged me 500 meters back. A mess started, the connection explodes in speech and I hear everything in the headset. While they were dragging me I reported 'hot hammer, I was hurt.' What happened". He was taken to Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba when his condition was defined as moderate, for fear that a main artery in his leg was injured. "While evacuating, rockets started firing at the area. I heard the sirens of the ambulance and alarms." Fortunately in the end his injury was not so severe. "I had a miracle, the ball went in and out."

Although he was not required to return to combat service, Elon decided he wanted to end his military service with his comrades.

"I wanted to go back to finishing with the guys. For me they are my second family, and not as a cliché."

Elon recently completed his combat service, along with his friends, and went on release leave.

For him, the injury, he says, is a sign from heaven.

"It's a miracle for me, a sign from God, I also do not know why. Sometimes the warriors have a bit of a hard time and they say half jokingly 'I wish I had a bullet, that the suffering would end'.

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