Former Israeli Defense Forces Major Sagi Dovev trained young soldiers in the Israeli army for 20 years before retiring two years ago to start his own organization. But when he woke up on the morning of October 7, 2023, he knew everything had changed.
“Sirens were going off everywhere. I knew exactly what was going on because I’m in a lot of WhatsApp groups for professional security,” Dovev told Fox News Digital. While witnessing the atrocities being broadcast live social media by Hamas terrorists that day, he knew the war had started.
On the way to the base, friends started calling him to tell him that his soldiers had been injured and were being sent there Sheba Medical Center. Dovev said he immediately turned around and went to the hospital, where he saw helicopters dropping off dozens of wounded soldiers “every few minutes.”
He ended up staying with one of his soldiers that day when he was rushed into surgery to have his leg amputated. But Dovev realized that he could not leave these soldiers behind.
On the walls of a bomb shelter hang photos showing people seeking refuge six months earlier before being killed during the deadly October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists from Gaza, near Kibbutz Beeri in southern Israel, on April 7, 2024. (REUTERS/Amir Cohen)
“When I was called back to base to train on base, I said, I can’t leave the soldiers here in the hospital. I have to stay here and train them here,” he recalled. “And that’s what I’ve been doing since October 7.”
Dovev, a close fight and resilience trainer who previously served as the lead close combat trainer in the IDF, has now spent more than a year volunteering day and night at Sheba Hospital, helping wounded soldiers regain their strength and sense of purpose after being wounded hit during the ongoing war in Gaza.
“It even became more than a job,” he explained.
Dovev shares inspiring videos on his social media accounts showcasing the incredible journeys these young men and women went through to regain not only their physical strength, but also their mental strength as they dealt with devastating injuries caused by war.
Former IDF Special Forces Major Sagi Dovev shares inspiring videos on his social media accounts about training and rehabilitating injured soldiers in the IDF. (Sagi Dovev/Instagram)
He shares stories like that of Elisha Medan, who lost both his legs in an explosion that killed four of his teammates and seriously injured four others.
“But his spirit is high and his resilience is strong. He wants us to remain united (inside and outside Israel) and fight together for Israel’s future. I really hope that one day soon we will see him as the leader of this country. Dovev wrote alongside a video of Medan training with Dovev.
Stories like Dor Almog, a young soldier who was the only survivor after 21 of his teammates were killed in a terrorist attack. Dovev shared how Almog was hooked up to a ventilator after last January’s attack, via learning to walk again and training in Krav Maga by that summer.
Or stories like that of Gaya Zubery, the first female soldier to be seriously injured in Gaza.
“Just a month and a half after completing her training, Gaya was seriously injured while rescuing soldiers from a tank hit by an RPG in Saja’iyya. Gaya was injured in both legs and was airlifted in critical condition,” he wrote on social media. media post.
“During the five-month rehabilitation, Gaya underwent numerous surgeries but retained her fighting spirit. Her determination and resilience are truly inspiring. Gaya never wanted to be a hero; she just wanted to save lives. Even after her injury, she says she would doing.” it all again,” Dovev said.
“I started teaching them how to fight again. How to walk again, how to fight without a leg. How to punch without a bone. How to control their body to get to know their new body. And that became something big,” Dovev explained. to Fox News Digital.
“It made them feel like fighters again. One day they are elite fighters or top professional athletes, and the next day they need someone to help them shower or go to the toilet. They need to learn their new skills. bodies, how to become resilient again. And they do,” he continued.
Sometimes that means sitting by the beds of these soldiers and offering words of encouragement while they remain unconscious.
“We’re starting to build it from scratch, from the lowest point,” Dovev said, saying each person’s journey to rehabilitation can take several months to a year.
The proud Israeli feels it is his calling to help these soldiers feel strong again and share their stories with the world, even as anti-Israel sentiment has spread around the world since the October 7 attacks.
The war between Israel and Hamas remains a divisive issue in the US, especially on college campuses, where protest camps took over several elite universities last spring.
Pro-Palestinian protesters walk from Columbia University to Hunter College.
Dovev, who has seen firsthand the costs of war, voiced blunt criticism of students participating in anti-Israel protests.
“Ignorance is no excuse,” Dovev said. “If another group were targeted, no one would say, ‘That’s no problem.’ But this is a big problem.”
“They don’t know the situation,” he said of his interactions with students in camps. “They can’t even point out where the river or the sea is,” referring to the anti-Semitic sentence often sung during protests.
Dovev sees the fight against Hamas as a fight to preserve not only his people, but the freedoms of the entire Western world.
These are the American hostages taken by Hamas terrorists and held in Gaza on October 7, 2023. Only Hersh Goldberg-Polin (left) was sent back to Israel after the IDF found him and other hostages murdered by terrorists. Pictured alongside Hersh are Itay Chen, Sagui Dekel-Chen, Edan Alexander, Omer Neutra, Gadi Haggai and Judi Weinstein Haggai and Keith Siegel. (Fox News photo)
“This is the only Jewish country and this is what we fight for and this is what we die for. For this country, for democracy, for the Jewish people, for the Western world.”
“Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East,” he said, inviting critics of Israel to visit Tel Aviv and see the difference for themselves. “But when they come to Gaza, they are thrown off the roof within five minutes if they are LGBTQ.”
Dovev warned Americans: “You don’t want this radicalism to come to the United States. It has already started. Look at Canada. Look at Europe. We must stop the spread of Hamas, Hezbollah and ISIS.”
Israel and Hamas appear to be moving again toward a ceasefire that could end the 15-month war in Gaza and bring home dozens of Israelis held hostage there. the associated press reported earlier this week.
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Both Israel and Hamas are under pressure from outgoing President Biden and newly elected President Donald Trump to reach an agreement before the January 20 inauguration. But the sides had come close before, but the talks failed due to several disagreements.
Last week, Trump was asked about the threats he first made in early December against the terrorist organization Hamas, which is still holding dozens of hostages, seven of them Americans, in Gaza.
Israel says about a third of that the remaining nearly 100 hostages diedbut believes as many as half could be dead, the Associated Press reported.
Trump told reporters that “all hell will break loose” if the hostages are not released by the time he takes office.
Caitlin McFall of the Associated Press and Fox News contributed to this report.
