hebrew → English transcript

Six-thirty in the morning, October seventh, you're at the outpost.

For us, October seventh starts before six-thirty.

I was a soldier in the mortar platoon of the 13th Battalion, Golani Brigade,

and that night, myself, Yotam Sarur, my sergeant, Tamar Ben Yehuda, may he rest in peace,

the three of us were pulling an all-nighter.

We allowed ourselves, especially on Saturdays and holidays, to pull an all-nighter until the dawn stand-to,

and you know, we have time to sleep, the mortar platoon, until the next stand-to.

So at 5:20 in the morning, we're sitting by the radio so as not to wake the operator,

and my deputy battalion commander, Nir Boinfeld, who was also seriously injured, and thank God he survived,

suddenly comes over the radio with a strange message.

"All stations, I don't know why, I don't know how," something along those lines,

"no patrol on the fence until nine in the morning."

What time was this? 5:20 in the morning.

All stations are to remain in place,

so in terms of ground forces and Orev units, we don't have anything significant.

In terms of our forces, an order came down from the brigade, following the situation assessment,

that no vehicle is to reach Burma until nine in the morning.

I repeat, until nine in the morning, pending the situation assessment,

no vehicle will go down to Burma.

We are at rear starting points,

a brigade system, I don't know exactly why,

I don't ask too many questions. That's the directive, that's what we do.

A little before it all begins,

and the commander gives us this look of

What?

And you know, we're simple soldiers, just combatants,

not commanders or officers who can ask questions,

it's an order from the deputy battalion commander,

we receive this order and don't ask questions,

a standard order being given.

And indeed, after an hour, at six-thirty,

suddenly, sirens.

Iri, I'll tell you the truth,

I've been living with this since October seventh,

and I was very afraid to talk about it,

and when I got to the Knesset,

it was after a period where I asked some senior army officials,

what actually happened there.

And there were those who initially told me,

Listen, there was a sniper threat from Nukhba on the fence,

so we didn't want to send soldiers,

so they wouldn't get hit.

And then with time, the penny kind of dropped for me,

and I said, wait, if there's a sniper threat,

How can it be that I, who am only 200 meters from the fence,

don't know there's a threat?

How can it be that my friends are fighting without vests,

in their underwear and socks,

and no one knows that something is happening,

we're only 200-300 meters from the fence.

And then that was on my mind again,

and then, suddenly, I get invited to the Knesset.

I felt this was the real opportunity to bring up this issue,

to talk about it, and to understand what actually happened there.

And look, as you say,

to a lot of people, it sounds strange

what actually happened there.

And we're coming back to this again,

and I'll be honest, Hila,

I've been living with a sort of hole in my head,

since October seventh,

where something in my heart feels like…

Listen, I don't know what happened there,

I don't know what happened there,

I want to understand, what happened?

Like everyone.

Look, the deputy company commander didn't have a sniper threat,

because the deputy company commander says, 'I have no idea why,

or why not.'

And sniper threats happen a lot.

He says this in real time,

at 5:20 a.m.,

it's not like someone told him to say that.

He received an order, without an explanation.

And that…

Right, so as soldiers,

when we hear something like that,

of course we follow orders.

It did sound a little strange to us,

but soldiers in the field,

and we'd been on this line for almost half a year,

with some losses here and there.

You know, from a loss to October seventh,

there's a…

Cool losses.

Yes, from public disturbances,

right, from public disturbances to a situation,

to events like those of October seventh,

we're talking about, you know,

something that's bizarre, that's very extreme,

to think that one day we would get to that point.

Have you talked amongst yourselves since?

After it was published…

So whoever was there…

Did you talk to each other after that?

So of course we talked about it.

We talked about it many times,

and we tried to look into it.

And I told you what various military people told me.

I thought many times about talking about it,

not talking about it,

and at some point I even started to doubt my own logic.

Wait, if they tell me there's no sniping,

as you say, how is there a threat?

If he said I don't know why and how,

And also, you know, I said maybe I don't remember well,

maybe it was that, and suddenly the recording came out.

You know, I have a responsibility here,

I can't talk about something like that on television,

and there are consequences to what I say.

So suddenly this thing popped up,

and this recording was released,

and what can I tell you? Like me, like you,

like all of Israel, I want to understand what happened on October seventh,

I lost many, many friends,

I was seriously injured,

every day I meet with the families, with the parents,

and really, you don't know how painful it is,

to bear it and be there for them,

and people see me, Shalom Shitrit, the wounded soldier,

they don't know how many things I'm trying to do.

Every day I wake up to a war,

I'm trying to reinvent myself,

I'm trying to help these families.

Every day is a war in itself,

also fighting without a leg.

You mean about that.

To live a new life,

Yes, the injury, exactly, and also to reinvent yourself,

to move on with life, not to dwell on this thing.

You know, in the end I was given my life,

I also need to move on with my life,

I can't stay stuck in the same place,

I'm missing a leg, poor me,

I want to understand what happened there,

and suddenly this thing that came out, his statement,

It scares me, it scares me a lot,

I hope we'll have clearer answers later on,

and not to jump to conclusions,

and not to worry an entire country,

but it is very important that there are

and whoever needs to pay the price,

should pay the price.

So many murdered, kidnapped,

It's something that I, as a soldier,

who served in the Gaza sector,

I'm telling you, for every little peep

for every little thing.

It scares me, it scares me to think