Three weeks later, when the ground maneuver inside the Gaza Strip began, the combat engineering fighters were among the first to enter the area. They leveled the roads, breached the obstacles and checked that there were no charges in the area. “The adrenaline was at its peak, you just wait to arrive and do everything you can to contribute. There was also fear, it’s impossible not to, but I kept reminding myself of the videos of October 7. It gave me strength and made it clear to me why I’m here.”
“I felt like I had blood in my mouth and it was hard for me to speak”
For almost two months, Ron and the fighters with him operated in the Gaza Strip. As part of the maneuver, the company arrived in the neighborhood of Darj Tupah in Gaza City. “They asked us to ‘open’ one of the alleys in the neighborhood. It was a problematic area, a tangled and dense kasbah and it was not easy for a bulldozer to move there” he recalled. “There were two of us in the fighter compartment, my soldier who operated the tool, and I next to him responsible for navigation and communication.” Surrounded by incessant gunfire, Ron and his teammates acted vigorously, and after allowing the tanks to enter the neighborhood, waited for the order to continue. According to him, usually in such a situation the bucket of the bulldozer must be raised, as a safety measure to prevent damage to the fighters’ cabin, and this is what the two did. Suddenly there was a loud boom. An anti-tank missile that was fired at them managed to pass through the raised handle of the tool, and penetrated into the fighters’ compartment. The missile passed a few centimeters from Ron’s head, and by a great miracle it exploded only after it came out the other side.
“At first I didn’t understand what was happening. I looked to the right at the friend I was with but after a few seconds I stopped seeing. Everything suddenly became dark. I felt that I had blood in my mouth and it was difficult for me to speak,” he recalled the chilling moments. “I was conscious so I tried to find a way to get out of there. I grabbed the walkie-talkie and started yelling that we needed to evacuate, but I realized that they couldn’t hear me, and only then did I realize that the walkie-talkie was on fire.”
The fighter who was with Ron in the fighter compartment miraculously survived and with great resourcefulness managed to rescue the damaged 9D bulldozer to a safer place. After that, the forces in the area began to evacuate the two. “They opened the door for me, they put us in the Tiger and when we got to the border we were evacuated by helicopter straight to Billinson Hospital. I was under pressure, I was in pain in many places and I didn’t see anything, so I didn’t know how serious the situation was.”
“There was a real danger to his sight, unfortunately, we have already met soldiers who lost it in this war”
At Billinson Hospital, Ron met Prof. Rita Ehrlich, director of the retina unit and retina and cataract surgeon. Now she talks about the dramatic moments. “Ron came to us with a serious injury in both eyes and with shrapnel in his entire upper body, including his face and neck. He went into immediate surgery, during which we removed foreign bodies from his eyes. His vision was in real danger. Unfortunately, we have already met soldiers who lost their vision in this war due to Foreign bodies that penetrated their eyes or following various complications.” The professor explains that Ron was hit by shrapnel in his eyes and in his left eye the retina was damaged, the inner part of the eyeball where the visual center is located. “We removed the foreign body from the eye, performed a laser in the area and left a gas inside that is supposed to keep the retina in place, and prevent a retinal detachment, during which fluid accumulates between the retina and the wall of the eyeball.” She also states that in Ron’s right eye, the shrapnel penetrated through the cornea and damaged the eye lens, so it was necessary to surgically remove the lens and implant an artificial lens.
The meeting between Prof. Ehrlich and Ron also evoked personal feelings in her. “My little son’s name is Ron, and he is a fighter in regular service and is in Gaza. When I saw the name Ron on the medical file, my soul almost died. This war touched me in several aspects, both as a doctor and a surgeon, as well as a mother. Of course, at the moment of truth, thoughts moved to the side and the focus is only on the treatment “.
“I’m back to 3 years old, my parents had to feed me”
Although the operation was successful, for several weeks Ron remained unable to see. “I was really stressed that I would stay like this. It was frightening. Two days ago I was seeing normally, and suddenly I walked around the room and ran into things. I felt like I was 3 years old again, my parents didn’t move from the hospital, my mother fed me and took care of me.”
Despite the severe injury, Ron did not lose hope and focused on only one thing “I wanted to go through the surgeries as quickly as possible, and return to fight with my friends”.
Little by little his condition improved and his vision in his left eye gradually returned. A few days ago, Ron underwent another operation, and an artificial lens was implanted in his right eye “I know it’s crazy that I can see again, I’m lucky they managed to fix it. I was serious that I didn’t wear protective glasses.”
These days Ron is resting at home but does not stop imagining the moment when he will fight again. “I really hope they don’t take my profile down. I have to rest for the next month, but I am in frequent contact with my friends from the team. Fortunately, they are no longer inside Gaza. If they were inside now while I was resting at home, I would freak out. I would run to fight with them without an eye, Without a leg, only with stones if necessary.”