Friday, November 15, 2024

‘Slipping on blood:’ Father of wounded soldier recounts Hezbollah drone attack

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Shuki, the father of one of the soldiers wounded during the Sunday evening Hezbollah drone attack on a Golani Brigade military base near Binyamina, recounted his son’s description of the event in a Monday interview with Maariv.

The Hezbollah attack killed four soldiers and seriously wounded another seven in an attack the Lebanese terror group claimed targeted the IDF’s Golani Brigade base in the area.

“My son is hospitalized at Beilinson,” Shuki explained. “He has relatively minor injuries, with shrapnel in his face, and he’s lost hearing in one ear. They performed a CT scan, and we’ll get the results today. I’m deeply concerned for the critically injured, and of course, for those who were killed. They were his trainees in the unit. It’s tough, but the soldiers are strong.”

“I received a message from my son saying, ‘A UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) crashed into the base, but I’m completely fine.’ He’s a squad commander for new recruits,” the soldier’s father added.

“He witnessed a scene reminiscent of a terror attack—that’s how he described it. He immediately went outside and informed me that he was being evacuated to a hospital. At first, they mentioned Rambam Hospital, but later he said they were transferring him by helicopter to Beilinson.”

An Israeli helicopter evacuates injured people after a drone attack caused mass casualties on October 13, 2024 in Binyamina, Israel. (credit: Amir Levy/Getty Images)

“They were sitting in the dining hall, about to eat. In an instant, from no more than five meters away, he saw exactly which table the drone crashed on. He didn’t look up at the ceiling but quickly realized it was a UAV. He saw soldiers in critical condition—people he knew well, his own trainees. The names will be released later. Some of the mothers called him, but knowing there was little hope, he didn’t answer. That wasn’t his responsibility,” he added.

‘People were slipping on blood’

“There was another injured person beside him,” Shuki noted. “They are very determined. They wanted to return to their soldiers and provide them with a sense of security. He said that after shrapnel hit his face, forces arrived quickly, and they evacuated whoever they could. He described a moment when, due to the amount of blood, people were slipping on the floor. It was a truly grim scene.”

“Normally, they eat at a different time, but that day, they happened to eat at that hour, and then everything unfolded,” the soldier’s father said at the end of the interview. “I assume there will be an investigation. It doesn’t seem plausible that a UAV could reach that spot. I mean the precision—it wasn’t random: both the location, the dining hall, and the timing. That’s the real concern.”



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