This week as well, Maj. Lee Fellows, the casualty officer of the Paratroopers Brigade, came to the orthopedic department at Beilinson Hospital to see how Lieutenant Uriel Shukron was recovering from his seventh surgery since Saturday, October 7, when he vacillated between life and death and only the doctors managed to keep him alive. Shukron (23) was lying on the bed, flanked by his wife Roni. When Major Plus asked how he felt, he replied with a smile: "I would pay a lot of money to be healthy now and fight."
On the morning of Black Saturday, the alarm caught Major Plus at her home in Kiryat Ono. Almost immediately afterwards, the paratroopers brigade commander, Col. Ami Biton, held a conference call with the brigade commanders, including her. "The first sentence he said was, 'Comrades, we are preparing for fighting.' I didn't understand exactly what he meant," she says, "but I immediately opened the computer and prepared a dashboard to see how I was managing the event."
"I apologized to the families for not attending the funerals." Shukron with casualty officer Lee Plus (right) and his wife Roni, photo: Arik Sultan
Far away, at the school for mechs and infantry professions near Yeruham, Lieutenant Shukron was sleeping and apparently dreaming of the house in the village of Eldad in Gush Etzion, where he and his wife Roni were supposed to move four days later. He barely remembered what the battalion commander had told them at the holiday dinner the night before. "On October 6, the Yom Kippur War broke out," the commander told his soldiers, "even today we don't know where it will catch us, because the enemy can always surprise."
A few minutes later, Shukron woke up from a kick in the ribs by the sergeant, who shouted at him determinedly: "Get up, get up, there's a war." Shukron said, "Okay, fine," and turned to the other side, but when the sergeant continued to insist, he woke up and got into his uniform. "Something big is happening in the Gaza envelope, at eight o'clock we will no longer be here," the company commander clarified.
Their unit was then on high alert, with equipment laid out at the exit door and buses ready in the parking lot to take them immediately anywhere in the country. Usually such an alert is only for the record, but this time at 08:00 the buses left the base gate, on their way to the envelope.
"On the way to the envelope, we are in a delusional movie"
"We were two departments out of three that stayed that Shabbat," Shukron says. "The third commander lives in Moshav Ein HaBasor near the Gaza Strip, and this morning posted a photo in which he covers his weapon outside the house. While we were on the way, he sent another message: 'I've been hit by a bullet in my throat and I'm on my way to Soroka.' The closer we got to the envelope, the more we got into a hallucinatory movie. At first it was hikers rushing out and fleeing the area, and then you see vehicles with gunshot wounds and people shot inside."
There was chaos in the brigade and division at the time, and no one could tell the soldiers where they were going or what their missions were. Shukron took over, stood on the bus and told his men: "We are entering an event we did not know, we only know that there are terrorists in the communities and our job is to protect the civilians."
Lieutenant Shukron: "The guy in the white van uttered two words: 'Gaza, Koran.' I gave him two bullets and killed him. Then we heard banging from the garage. A young woman came out, all shaking and stuttering. She didn't understand that they were trying to kidnap her."
He asked his soldiers to send a message to their parents that everything was fine, turn off devices and get on full combat equipment. The bus made its way towards Kibbutz Nirim and the sights had already become difficult; Overturned vehicles and bodies scattered on the road. At the junction in front of the kibbutz, they decided to go down, but when they realized that there were no terrorists around and that it was better to continue, one of the commanders reported that he heard noises from the Basor River, which is just below them.
"At a glance from the bridge, we saw a Hamas van and terrorists lying next to it. We thought there might still be armed men downstairs," he says. "We decided in military language to 'stab' the stream from above, to give a few bullets to make sure there was no one. I asked the Negebist to give a bundle of width to lower our heads, and then we went down to check that there were indeed no terrorists. As we approached, a grenade was thrown at us. We lay down on the floor, and luckily the shrapnel didn't hit anyone. We spotted two escapees running. We automatically lay down and struck fire, one of the terrorists was killed, the other managed to escape. We made a decision to scan the stream."
The soldiers deployed in the area and began to search it slowly and safely. One of the classrooms spotted five people running in the open field, not far from them. "At that point, we knew there were several types of people in the area," Shukron explains. "Police or Border Police intervention forces, civilians who managed to escape, and terrorists whose only way to identify them is by their Kalashnikovs, but when they have their backs to you, many times you don't recognize the weapon and think ten times before releasing a bullet. After all, it is much scarier to shoot a civilian. Only very late did we see them fleeing. When we spotted the clutches, we fired at them, but they were far away and we didn't hit."
"We came under fire from 180 degrees. They were deployed in a straight line, lots of terrorists who wouldn't stop shooting. When we stabilized the ranks, it turned out that out of 25, five were killed – my MK and four soldiers, who I accompanied for two and a half months in the course."
The two platoons decided to go in pursuit of the terrorists. The battalion commander and company commander from the Makim course also joined the hunt. Shukron and the crew tried to reduce distance through the stream and then encountered a white pickup truck parked by the side of the road. "I asked the battalion commander, 'Did someone scan the car?'" Shukron says. "He said no. Two soldiers and I searched it and saw a figure and another lying outside. We shouted from afar, 'Who is this?' and, you know, maybe they were civilians. The guy inside answered in English, with a broken Arabic accent. Then he uttered two words: 'Gaza, Quran.' I gave him two bullets and killed him.
"We wanted to move forward, and then we heard banging coming from the garage. I asked the battalion commander and his staff to secure us, so that a terrorist wouldn't suddenly come out. I opened the trunk, ran backwards for cover, and then a young woman came out, all trembling, stuttering a little in Hebrew and I hear a French accent in her voice. I speak French from home, so I immediately asked, 'What happened?'
"She said she was at a party in bad guys and everyone was shot. She said she lay in the ditch for three hours until these two guys came and rescued her. Only then did I realize that she didn't even realize that they had tried to kidnap her. The vehicle was already facing Gaza, without a license plate. We took her with us, put her on the bus and attached a paramedic. The next order we received was to go to Kibbutz Kissufim."
"It was like a punch in the gut"
The Paratroopers Brigade was supposed to begin training the next day, some of its soldiers were on vacation at home, some at the base, but this did not prevent it from being one of the first forces to arrive in the envelope to assist in the fighting. The paratroopers took part in the fierce battles that developed in Sderot and Kibbutzim Be'eri, Kfar Gaza and Kissufim. And as the battles progressed, fighters were killed and wounded.
"I was a casualty officer in Operation Protective Edge, but I don't think anything prepared me on a personal level for what we went through in the first days of the war," says Maj. Plus, the casualty officer of the Paratroopers Brigade. "It was mostly the quantities. The first boom was the arrival of the wounded at the hospital, some in helicopters and others in ambulances. I heard the names of people I knew who were no more, and it shook me. For example, a soldier who worked with me for a while, a gorgeous guy, was killed. It's a strong punch in the stomach, but you have to keep going, because when I'm working I have to be disconnected."
In the meantime, the bus with Shukron's platoon, plus the battalion commander and company commander, made its way to Kibbutz Kissufim in the western northern Negev, almost opposite Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip. "At the entrance to the kibbutz there was a disabled tank," Shukron recalled at the reception. "The gate was destroyed, terrorists were lying everywhere, you understand that a serious battle was going on. We waited for the chief of staff to tell us which houses there were besieged civilians, so we could start working. He came and said he couldn't pinpoint specific places, so the battalion commander decided we would scan the main street and run between the houses. We took a right at the first turn, there is a bus stop there, an area you never imagine you will fight. After all, a kibbutz in the envelope is not the Kasbah in Hebron. There is no dense construction or tall buildings. Nothing of what you are used to. There are lawns, groves, playgrounds. You have to go barefoot in a lot of places."
Kibbutz Kissufim. "The gate was destroyed and terrorists were lying everywhere," Photo: AP
The group of soldiers skipped from place to place as they were taught in infantry school, moving from the first line of houses to the second, and then to the fourth. Then, not far from the junction near the wall separating the kibbutz from the nearby military outpost, a bomb opened fire on it.
"The terrorists barricaded themselves behind the wall. At first, we couldn't even see them," Shukron says. "We came under fire from 180 degrees. They were literally deployed in a straight line, lots of terrorists who wouldn't stop shooting. When we stabilized the ranks, it turned out that out of 25, five were killed – my commander and four soldiers, some of whom I had accompanied for two and a half months in the course and who in a month I was supposed to give them a role."
"We didn't have ceramic vests. All the way to the envelope they said, 'The cream will join you.' At the entrance to Kissufim you say, 'Either I'm going to save civilians, or I'm waiting for a vest.' I'm right-handed anyway, so I'll be able to get goals on the right foot."
But it was not even possible to mourn or shed a tear for the dead comrades, because the terrorists' fire did not stop for a moment. The battalion commander who ran to the wounded was hit in the back by two bullets, and the company commander was hit in the leg. Shukron remained the senior commander who could function fully. "I'm standing behind a shield and I can actually see the bullets hitting all around me," he recalls. "I come to take out my weapon to return fire, and the bullet wounds appear inches from my forehead. I know that if I stick my head out, I'll get kidnapped. So I take out only the weapon, give a blow of fire and return. I'm the commander of the force, that's what's left. I call my counterpart, who is still in the Basor River area, and say, 'Brother, come quickly.' He asks, 'How urgent?' I tell him, 'Five dead, a wounded company commander, a wounded battalion commander. Get there.'"
The commander and the supporting force arrived about half an hour later and helped evacuate the wounded. In the meantime, they returned fire so that the terrorists would not advance. In the extermination zone, the area separating the terrorists from the fighters, about 20 meters where there is no shelter and everyone advancing is shot, lay the body of one of the soldiers Shukron wanted with all his might to bring home.
"I took one of the soldiers," he says. "I put him at the right angle and said, 'Your mission is not to kidnap him. Anyone who comes close to the body, you take it apart.'"
Practice. Lieutenant Shukron with his troops,
A force from the 669th Rescue Unit arrived to evacuate some of the seven wounded. Meanwhile, Shukron and his soldiers took every available magazine from the evacuees so that they would not run out of ammunition during the protracted battle. It was already a hot afternoon. A force of the Egoz unit, which wanted to help, tried to outflank the terrorists, encountered strong fire and was then assigned to another mission.
"After they left, at about 4:30 P.M., two Davids arrived with senior officers, a battalion commander and a company commander. I asked the battalion commander to help retrieve my soldier's body," Shukron recalls.
"The last thing I wanted was to be kidnapped. I knew that if I extracted her, I could breathe a little sigh of relief. I asked the officer to block the terrorists' firing angles with the vehicles so that I could enter the extermination zone. He said, 'I don't deal with fatalities, I'm here to fight.' He wanted to take his cars, put them on the intersection and shoot from there. I explained to him that the last tiger (APC) standing there had hit an RPG. He drove off anyway, started shooting, and got fire from hell and grenades. Within four minutes, we had to treat their injuries as well."
"When I stick my head out of the shield, the bullets hit inches from my forehead. If I stick my head out, I'll get kidnapped. I call the inspector general and tell him, 'Dude, come quickly. We have five dead here, a wounded company commander, a wounded battalion commander. Get there.'"
"We had nothing to do with the brigade"
It was a long and exhausting battle, Shukron's soldiers were constantly on the radio and asked for assistance. "We wanted a tank to come and shell the wall, to smash it, to help with firepower that we don't have, because dozens of terrorists were standing in front of us," he says. "I had no connection to the brigade, division or battalion. There is no one to turn to. As an officer, it was easiest for me to complain, 'Where is the army?' but every kibbutz in the area was hijacked, so I can't just look from my narrow gaze."
So what do we do?
"They understand that we have to be strong. I went through the soldiers and tried to raise morale, because they saw their friends being killed in front of their eyes, and they could still see them lying a few meters away from them. There's not much to say, so I looked them in the eye and said: 'That's why we enlisted, we're here so that these terrorists don't run amok on the kibbutz. Our friends didn't just die, they defended this country with their bodies.'"
It wasn't until about six o'clock, when the sun was about to set, that Shukron felt there was a change. Military forces began to appear near the kibbutz gates, and rumors reached that special forces had managed to regain control of the nearby outpost. In front of him on the road appeared as first aid 'Tiger', the same massive Merkava armored personnel carrier.
Shukron knew that this was an opportunity to extricate the soldier's body from the extermination zone. The tiger agreed to close the angles of the terrorists' fire, and Shukron ran with three soldiers and a stretcher to the dangerous area to retrieve the body of the dead soldier.
"As we get back I get a bundle in my leg," he recalls. "Trying to keep going and getting another bundle in his hand and falling in place. I look to the right and see the dead soldier next to me and the stretcher next to him. Of the four who carried her, I was the hardest. Nothing happened to the two people in the front, and the one next to me got shot in the leg, but still managed to get cover. I fell in the extermination zone and felt my blood flowing out. I felt crazy numbness in my arm and leg. I said Shema Yisrael once, a second time and a third time, and I saw that I wasn't dead yet. Still conscious. Although the left hand and leg were finished, the right leg and hand functioned and the chest looked fine.
"I started crawling toward cover, and the corresponding commander shouted, 'Stop, if you keep going they'll know you're alive and they'll finish you.' I realized I couldn't take care of myself, because to put a tourniquet I had to roll over on my back. I put my head in the ground and realized I had to play it dead. I just asked the negvist who was stationed not far from me to 'talk to me all the time so I can stay conscious.' Every few seconds I exchanged a few words with him, and then I started to get tired and didn't have the energy to speak. Instead of answering, I moved a leg or head so he would know I was still with him. I lay in the extermination zone for nearly 40 minutes and lost a lot of blood because of damage to the main artery in my leg."
"I told the soldiers: 'If you pull me out of the car, my arm and leg will be torn off, I'll only be taken off on a stretcher.' Suddenly, there was a red alert alert. I looked up at the sky and said, 'If it has to be a missile, let it be a missile.'"
"I was sure I was dead"
Less than an hour later, teams from the Egoz and Magellan units arrived at Shukron, gave a serious blow of fire and managed to get him out. "I felt like I was being dragged. Two soldiers who received me gave me initial treatment, put a tourniquet on my limbs and put me in a walnut boiler in the back. When we got to the treatment station, I told the soldiers, 'If you pull me out of the car, my arm and leg will be torn off. Only take me down on a stretcher.' They dragged me out of the vest, continued to treat, and suddenly there was a 'Color Red' alarm. Everyone in the area disappeared and I found myself lying on the stretcher alone. I looked up at the sky and said, 'If it has to be a missile, let it be a missile.'"
Shukron's memory is amazing, like a slow-motion movie in front of his eyes. Even after being drugged a little to ease his pain, he remembers how he felt when he woke up a short time later. There is hardly a moment of that hard day that was erased from the floppy disk.
"I slowly wake up and see the light of the ICU and in the dimness I'm sure I'm dead, no longer with us," he smiles. "Then the doors open, grab the stretcher and start running with it. Consciousness comes back to me massively. They put me in a helicopter, which hurries to take off. I look to the right, see a 669 doctor sitting above me and saying, 'Ahlan,' and I look down on myself for being alive and shouting 'I'm a machine,' and there's no way I'm losing consciousness until I'm in the hands of the doctors."
With his wife Ronnie, before the injury, photo: from the private album
In the hospitals, the army's casualty officers spent hours ascertaining the identities of the wounded who did not stop flowing from the battlefield. "On the first day, we received phone calls from families of soldiers. In most cases, I still didn't know how to give an answer about their children," says Maj. Plus.
It must be crazy pressure. What do they answer?
"Actually, I don't know. I don't hide anything, because before I'm a casualty officer and before I'm in the paratroopers brigade, I'm the face of the army, and if they hear in my voice that I've lost it, then we've all lost it. As far as I could, I was in control. So the most important thing for us was that every injured person who could speak let his family know that he was okay."
Since he entered the hospital, Shukron's wife, Ronnie, has not moved from his bed. "I kept seeing his metrics fluctuating. How one moment is in this world, moving on to the next, and then coming back to us. I was in the room the whole time."
Shukron remembers well the reception at the hospital. "They start running down the corridors with me and someone there says to me, 'Do you want to talk to mom and dad, tell them you're here?' I said, 'Absolutely not, just call my wife and tell her I'm in Soroka.' I read them her number and from there I was rushed to the trauma room."
Nine hours in the operating room
Shukron's wife, Roni, now an officer in the Education Corps, comes from Mitzpe Ilan. She met Uriel seven years ago, when they both volunteered for Hashomer. Two idealistic young people who got married two and a half years ago. Since he entered the hospital, she hasn't moved from his bed. "I kept seeing his metrics fluctuating," she says. "How is he in this world, moving on to the next, and then coming back to us. I was in the room the whole time."
As soon as he arrived at the hospital in Beersheba on Saturday evening, Shukron was rushed to the operating room. He was there for nine hours to save his life. It turns out that he lost four out of about six liters of blood in his body, and it took 12 units of blood to stabilize it. At the same time, they had to save the main artery in his left leg, and also remove two bullets from his hand and four more from his leg. He thinks more bullets hit him, because doctors also found bullet entry and exit holes that didn't remain in his body.
"No one promises me anything, but the expectation is that the leg will return to full function. The elbow had to be reconstructed in my hand and that's why I'm fixated," he points to the device that now restricts him. "We didn't have ceramic vests. All the way to the envelope they told me, 'The cream will join you.' At the entrance to Kissufim you say, 'Either I'm going to save civilians, or I'm waiting for a vest,' and you don't think twice. If the bullets had hit ten centimeters to the right, I would have died. A miracle in itself. I'm right-handed anyway, so to get goals on the right foot I'll still succeed."
"Most of the fallen were my soldiers in recent months. It's important for me to say that those wonderful guys were killed when they saved the residents of Kibbutz Kissufim. It's about taking the best, and I got to be with them."
In the first days of the fighting, the Paratroopers Brigade lost 17 fighters, five of them in the heroic battle at Kibbutz Kissufim, fighters of the 101st Battalion: Staff Sergeant Omri Peretz z"l and the fighters Sergeant Lavi Buchnik z"l, Staff Sergeant Regev Amar z"l, Sergeant Bar Yankelov z"l and Sergeant Matan Malka z"l.
"Every fatality is a whole world, and there were quite a few heartbreaking stories in the brigade," says Maj. Fellows. "Roy Nahari, an officer who was killed, and his twin brother also serves with us. I was with my family when they said goodbye to him. Valentin Gancia, a lone soldier from France, was killed in the defense of Kibbutz Bari, but despite the difficult moments, the spirit of the fighters remained amazing. Some of those who were wounded have already returned to fight. They more than asked, they demanded. They strengthen each other."
Shukron will not soon return to holding arms; he can expect many months of rehabilitation. They have already abandoned their dream of a home in Kfar Eldad in favor of finding an accessible apartment not far from their parents so they can help. Still, he insists that the paratroopers' flag hang in the room, and Ronnie, his wife, says that despite his situation, he would like to join his men.
"I've known Omri who fell for six months, was my trainee in the course and stayed with me as MK," Shukron says. "The rest of the fallen were my soldiers in recent months, and if there's anything important for me to say, it's that those wonderful guys were killed while saving the residents of Kibbutz Kissufim. It's about taking the best, and I got to be with them.
"I apologized to their families for not being able to attend the funeral and shiva, but I said that their sons defended a community that still stands with body and soul. It's certainly not a consolation for the parents who lost a son, but it's what keeps me and the soldiers who are now going to fight in Gaza."
shishabat@israelhayom.co.il
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