“I Evacuated my Own Son”

By Yuval Goren, Noa Kosharek and Yanir Yagna – Ha’aretz

Brig. Gen. (res.) Zvi Fogel commanded the artillery strike that provided cover for the evacuation of six IDF soldiers wounded in the Gaza Strip on Monday.

It was only after the six troops were successfully transferred to Tel Hashomer hospital in central Israel that he discovered he had helped to rescue his son.

“They told me it was his battalion, but it never crossed my mind that my son was among the wounded,” he said. “A little before eight my other son phoned me and said ‘dad, we’re going to Tel Hashomer.'”

After a brief hour-long visit with his wounded son, Fogel returned to Southern Command headquarters in Be’er Sheva.

The family and friends of the wounded flocked to the hospital.

“They phoned me a little before eight to tell me that my husband was lightly wounded and was being transferred to Tel Hashomer. I caught a glimpse of him before he was taken into the operating room. His face was a little burnt and I could see the shrapnel wounds,” said the wife of one of the wounded soldiers.

An officer who was lightly wounded in the incident returned to his soldiers in the field right after he was treated.

The father of a wounded soldier, tears in his eyes, stood in the hallway and comforted his daughter. “Thank God he’s only lightly wounded,” he said. “He’s covered in shrapnel. We spoke to him; he can communicate. But he hasn’t told us what happened over there.”