Sgt. S., 24, a maintenance officer in the Givati Reconnaissance Unit, was badly wounded in southern Lebanon in May while crossing the border to repair a disabled Namer armored vehicle. She and a noncommissioned officer were urgently sent to fix it before an attack, when the NCO spotted a hostile explosive drone seconds before it struck. He shoved her into the vehicle, jumped in after her, and the drone exploded almost immediately, sending shrapnel into her face and head and into his legs. They shouted to make sure they were alive, then fled to nearby troops and received first aid. S. was evacuated by helicopter to Ichilov Hospital with blast injuries, a ruptured eardrum, and numerous facial fragments, including two very close to her eyes.
Doctors operated immediately and again later, but could not remove all the shrapnel, which she will live with permanently. A plastic surgeon joined the procedures to minimize scarring. She says she was lucky the fragments did not hit more critical areas, adding, “I could have lost one eye, maybe both.” Her parents were on vacation in Cyprus when they learned she had been wounded. S. asked medical staff not to call her grandparents or sister, and her mother eventually saw her on a FaceTime call after first missing repeated calls.
She spent a month in Ichilov and has since returned home. Her scars are barely visible, but she still has ringing in her ears, hearing loss, and cannot open her mouth fully because one fragment is lodged near a jaw-opening muscle. She is doing physiotherapy and says she can still not eat a burger she loves. Before enlisting, S. had been on track for an international ballet career, including a contract with a leading Spanish company in Barcelona, but chose the army instead because she felt she could not remain a civilian in Israel while others served. She says ballet gave her discipline, perfectionism, sacrifice, and persistence, qualities she carried into years of service in the Technological and Maintenance Corps and later as an officer in combat units in Gaza and Lebanon. She expects to be discharged soon, after nearly five years, and plans to study law and government at Reichman University, possibly for a future in diplomacy or the Foreign Ministry.
