Tali Hadad Went To Evacuate The Injured, The First Evacuee Was Her Son Itamar

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Tali Hadad heard shooting from her Ofakim home on the morning of Simchas Torah. Realizing that terrorists had entered the city, she didn’t just hide in a safe room, even though this would have been the first instinct for a civilian. Instead she instructed her son to “Take your weapon and go and save lives.” Wishing to help herself in the lifesaving, and not imagining the scope of the tragedy [nearly 50 people died in Ofakim on the fateful morning of October 7], The 48-year-old mother of six drove in her car near the scene to rescue injured people.

The first injured person she evacuated turned out to be her son Itamar, who had been shot in the clashes with terrorists. Having transferred him to MDA medics, she went back to the combat areas many times, evacuating 13 people to safe places. Only then did she allow herself to travel to the hospital, where her son Itamar was located in the trauma unit.

Hadad recalls that her husband had gone to prayers with two daughters and as the shooting grew stronger, she told Itamar “Go, this is the role of your life you have been waiting for. Run, my dear, run.”

Hadad said that she stood near a recreation park and “The terrorists shot in all directions, my daughter and I saw them shooting in 360 degree arcs and then they went towards the buildings. We ran away and then there was a shootout where I later found out that my son was involved.”

The two fighters who were together with Itamar were killed, although they had succeeded in eliminating some terrorists. Itamar was injured and ran in zigzags so as not to be a sitting target. “He was shot in the stomach, thigh and foot,” Tali added.

Racing in to the area with her car, she asked people where the injured were. “They brought me the first one and I saw that it was Itamar. I looked him in the eyes and said I will take him to MDA as there are no ambulances. I took him there [to the clinic] , placed him in an ambulance and asked them to take him fast to hospital. I then went to bring more injured people.

“I found myself alone in the city, with terrorists everywhere. Nobody around, birds not chirping and I raced to the square and took another load of injured. I was under fire, there was no dull moment or break. There was shooting in all of the buildings, smoke, cries of Allahu Aqbar.”

Tali took the injured to the MDA clinic and hurried back to bring more. Returning later to her son, she found that he undergone an operation after his liver had been cut in two and his gallbladder torn.

Despite being unarmed, Tali bravely and heroically entered the danger zone to save lives. This is the ethos she brought her children up to as well- her eldest son, an officer, a second son a member of the engineering corps, Itamar- a member of the Nahal special forces unit and another fighting on the Lebanon border.