Yoseph Haddad: "I almost died"
The advocacy activist and former Golani fighter marked exactly 20 years since the day he was wounded in battle during the Second Lebanon War. "The doctor said: 'Get me a helicopter for evacuation here now, or bring an armored ambulance at noon to evacuate a corpse,'" he recalled. Haddad sent a message to the wounded fighters: "There is light at the end of the tunnel."
"On this day, I received my life anew." Advocacy activist and former Golani fighter Yoseph Haddad marked this morning (Monday) exactly 20 years since the battle in which he was wounded during the Second Lebanon War. The battle took place in the town of Bint Jbeil, which is currently controlled by the IDF as part of the new security zone.
"My mother asked: 'Don't get wounded.' I didn't keep the promise."
In a video Haddad published on his social media, he noted his feelings, exactly two decades since the traumatic event. "I like to call this day my second birthday because on this day I almost died, but actually I received my life anew," said the CEO of the "Aravim Ze La-Ze" organization. Haddad was wounded four days before the ceasefire, when the terrorist organization Hezbollah fired a Kornet missile at his team in the Bint Jbeil area.
"I was lucky because I was only wounded. Other friends of mine in Golani fell there for the sake of our country and for the sake of their brothers in arms," Haddad eulogized his friends in the battalion who were killed in the battle, and reconstructed the dramatic moments before he was evacuated.
"I lay there in Lebanon on a stretcher, spitting blood, without a foot, with an open face and with injuries all over my body. I heard the reservist doctor saying on the radio: 'Get me a helicopter for evacuation here now, or bring an armored ambulance at noon to evacuate a corpse.'"
The activist, who is currently in the USA on another advocacy tour, noted with pride that in the place where he was wounded, IDF soldiers now rule, having "conquered it from Hezbollah, humiliated them, crushed them, and gave them a beating there" — and Nasrallah is nowhere to be found. "Twenty years, but here I am, on my feet. And where are you, oh Hassan Nasrallah? Where are you, oh Nasrallah? Coming to you soon, Naim Qassem. Remember, very soon. Inshallah."
Haddad also sent a strengthening message to the war wounded: "There is light at the end of the tunnel! Do not despair and do not stop fighting to rehabilitate. And especially do not neglect the mental side as well, it is not a shame! Post-trauma is a natural thing after what you have been through, treat this invisible wound as well, without it, it will be difficult to rehabilitate physically!"
