Captain A. is a 25 year-old reserve officer in the Israeli Air Force, who serves in the 'Protective Sword' unit, which operates protective missiles that intercept the missiles fired at Israel.
On October 7th, he and four friends were enjoying themselves at the ‘Nova’ party, but as soon as the barrage of fire started he realized something unusual was happening.
"As we ran through the orchards, I felt like a Partisan and one of the helpless Jews that fled from the Nazis to the forests for safety during the Holocaust."
This is how Captain A., from Ness Ziona, describes the moments of the escape from the party, when he led about two hundred young people to safety towards Moshav Patish.
“People were trying to flee in droves. We got into the car and started to escape, but then the terrorists began to shoot in our direction. The bullets managed to get stuck in the car's engine and some young people who were passing in another car shouted to us to go in the opposite direction."
At the same time, terrorists were roaming the area and were shooting in every direction. There was no chance of escaping because there were major traffic jams due to a large number of cars trying to escape, all at the same time.
“I made a quick decision to leave my car, which had become a trap, and run towards the nearby orchard," A. continued to recount. "A group of about two hundred party- goers who saw me, and were completely terrified, followed me and I decided to lead them. I heard continuous gunshots while running but I knew I had to continue. I wasn’t armed, so it would not have helped if I had stopped to try to treat the casualties when the terrorists were after us."
A. used his experience as an officer and Google maps to try and lead the group to the city of Ofakim. On the way he saw an update that the terrorists were in this city and changed direction towards Moshav Patish.
They crossed streams and hid in the bushes. After a long time passed, and the army still had not yet arrived, people began to grow tired. In order to gain strength they began to eat the fruit that they found on the ground of the orchard and drink murky water, from the puddles under the trees left from the irrigation system.
About seven hundred meters before reaching the moshav, people from Patish noticed the group and began to rescue them in their vehicles.
With his resourcefulness, A. saved about two hundred young people. After a few days of rest at home, he joined his reserve unit in the army to protect the country's skies with the protective missiles. The number of people he saves every day is innumerable.
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