Hesder yeshiva student injured in Huwara shooting: "It's a miracle, obviously""

March 26, 2023   

Ayalon Zobel, one of the two soldiers who was injured last night before the end of Shabbat in the shooting attack in the village of Huwara, spoke today (Sunday) about the moments of the shooting and the treatment he and his friend received, in just two minutes. "I'm fine, and may the people of Israel be strong," Zobel, a resident of Kiryat Shmuel, told Yoav Itiel of the Walla website. "We were reinforced in Huwara and secured the axis for the soldiers, there so that what happened wouldn't happen again. What happened was that I heard shots and then we looked for shelter, we didn't recognize anything, we didn't recognize who shot at us," he recalled. "In the meantime, we realized that we were hit, we called for treatment and in less than two minutes they arrived and treated us. It's a miracle, of course. We have to say a big thank you to the Creator of the universe, to my battalion commander and to the company commander of my battalion. We have to keep that in mind." Ayalon is the middle child in a family of five children. He graduated from the Bnei Akiva 'Perhi Aharon' yeshiva in Kiryat Shmuel, where his family lives. He and his injured friend are students at the Hesder Yeshiva in Sderot. His father, Doron, who, together with his mother Naama, are sitting by their son's bedside, told Walla: "Aylon was hit by gunfire from a passing vehicle and thank God he had a ceramic vest on that saved his life. He has shrapnel and a hole in his lung that requires drainage. God willing, today they will transfer him to the ward itself." The father recounts what the parents have been through since last night: "Right after Shabbat ended, Aylon called with a kind of softening of the news, when in his voice he informed us of the injury. He said, 'I was injured, I am conscious, come visit me at Beilinson Hospital.' He did not say what the injury was about and the truth is that only later, on the long way from the Kiryat Torah to the hospital, did the casualty officer inform us and that reassured us a bit that of course he was in treatment, that a CT scan was done. And apparently the bullet did not penetrate the chest, but only hit him from the outside." Samaria Regional Council Head Yossi Dagan today moved his office to Hawara in protest of the three recent attacks in the village. MK Zvi Sukkot walked on Route 60, which runs through the village, with an Israeli flag.