Former Israel Defense Forces Major Sagi Dovev spent 20 years training young soldiers in the Israeli army before retiring two years ago to start his own organization. But when he woke up on the morning of October 7, 2023, he knew that everything had changed.
“The sirens were everywhere. I knew exactly what was going on because I’m in a lot of professional security WhatsApp groups,” Dovev told Fox News Digital. While witnessing the crimes that were broadcast live social media by Hamas terrorists that day, he knew the war had begun.
On the way to the base, his friends started calling him to tell him that his soldiers were wounded and that they were sending them away Sheba Medical Center. Dovev said he immediately turned around and headed to the hospital where he saw helicopters unloading dozens of wounded soldiers “every few minutes”.
He ended up staying with one of his soldiers that day while he was rushed into surgery to have his leg amputated. But Dovev realized that he could not leave those soldiers behind.
Images are displayed on the walls of a bomb shelter, where people sought refuge six months ago before being killed during a deadly October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists from Gaza, near Kibbutz Beeri in southern Israel, April 7, 2024. (REUTERS/Amir Cohen)
“When they called me back to the base to train at the 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, close combat i resilience coach who previously served as the IDF’s Chief Close Combat Special Operations Trainer, has now spent more than a year volunteering day and night at Sheba Hospital, helping wounded soldiers regain strength and a sense of purpose after being wounded in the ongoing war in Gaza.
“It became more than a job,” he explained.
Dovev shares inspiring videos on his social media accounts showing the incredible journeys these young men and women have gone through to regain not only their physical strength, but also their mental strength, in the face of devastating war injuries.
Former IDF Special Forces Major Sagi Dovev shares inspiring videos on his social media accounts about the training and rehabilitation of wounded soldiers in the IDF. (Sagi Dovev/Instagram)
He shares stories like that of Elisha Medan, who lost both 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 stay united (inside and outside Israel) and fight together for Israel’s future. I really hope we see him one day soon, leading this country,” he wrote Dovev with a video of Medan’s training with Dovev.
Stories like Doro Almog, a young soldier who was the only survivor after 21 of his comrades were killed in a terrorist attack. Dovev said Almog went from being put on a ventilator after the attack last January to learning to walk again to Krav Maga training by that summer.
Or stories like that of Gaya Zubery, the first seriously wounded female soldier 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,” a media post wrote on the social network. .
“During her five months of 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 simply wanted to save lives. Even after her injury, she says she would do anything from scratch,” said Dovev.
“I started teaching them how to fight again. How to walk again, how to fight without a leg. How to punch without a leg. How to control their body so they could learn their new bodies. And it became a big thing,” Dovev explained to Fox News. Digital.
“This is what made them feel like warriors again. Because one day they’re elite fighters or elite professional athletes, and the next day they need someone to help them shower or go to the bathroom. They have to learn their new bodies, how to become resistant, and they do,” he continued.
Sometimes that means sitting by the bedside of these soldiers and giving them words of encouragement as they lay unconscious.
“We start building it from scratch, from their lowest point,” Dovev said, saying each person’s journey to rehabilitation can take several months to a year.
The proud Israeli sees his calling as helping those soldiers feel strong again and sharing 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 continues to be divisive in the US, particularly on college campuses, where protest camps occupied several elite universities last spring.
Pro-Palestinian protesters walk from Columbia University to Hunter College.
Dovev, who saw firsthand the cost of war, harshly criticized students who participate in anti-Israel protests.
“Ignorance is no excuse,” Dovev said. “If any other group had been targeted, no one would have said ‘no big deal’. But this is a big deal.”
“They don’t know the situation,” he said of his interactions with students at the camps. “I can’t even point out where the river or the sea is,” referring to antisemitic phrase often chanted at protests.
Dovev sees the fight against Hamas as a fight to preserve not only his people but also the freedom of the entire Western world.
These are American hostages who were captured by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023 and held in Gaza. Only Hersh Goldberg-Polin (left) was returned to Israel after the IDF found him and other hostages killed by terrorists. Pictured next to Hersh are Itay Chen, Sagui Dekel-Chen, Edan Alexander, Omer Neutra, Gadi Haggai and Judi Weinstein Haggai and Keith Siegel. (Photo by Fox News)
“This is the only Jewish country and this is what we are fighting for and this is what we are dying 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, urging critics of Israel to visit Tel Aviv and see the difference for themselves. “Yet if they come to Gaza, they’ll be thrown off the roof in five minutes if they’re LGBTQ.”
Dovev warned Americans: “You don’t want this radicalism to come to the United States. It’s already started. Look at Canada. Look at Europe. We have to stop the spread of Hamas, Hezbollah and ISIS.”
Israel and Hamas appear to be moving closer once again to a ceasefire that could end the 15-month war in Gaza and bring home dozens of Israelis held hostage there. to the Associated Press reported earlier this week.
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Both Israel and Hamas are under pressure from outgoing President Biden and President-elect Donald Trump to reach a deal before the January 20 inauguration. But the parties have been getting closer before, only for the talks to fail due to various disagreements.
Last week, Trump was asked about the threats he first made in early December to the terrorist organization Hamas, which continued to hold dozens of hostages, including seven Americans, in Gaza.
Israel says about a third the remaining nearly 100 hostages diedbut he believes as many as half may be dead, the Associated Press reported.
Trump told reporters that “all hell would break loose” if the hostages were not released by the time he took office.
The Associated Press and Fox News’ Caitlin McFall contributed to this report.
