Wounded Israeli soldiers find recovery in Tel Aviv surf therapy

A group of Israeli combat soldiers who were severely wounded in the war are rebuilding themselves through surfing at a new wave pool complex in southern Tel Aviv. The report follows Reserve Staff Sgt. Harel Tang'ji, Capt. Itay Reginiano and Sgt. Omer Bini, all of whom suffered life-threatening injuries and long recoveries, as they join a rehabilitation session at SRF Park TLV with journalist Dani Kushmaro.

Tang'ji was critically wounded in January 2024 when a grenade exploded, leaving him with four shrapnel wounds to the head. He says he was unconscious for a week, then on a ventilator for another week, and woke up partly paralyzed, half blind on the left side and unable to run. Reginiano says he suffered a devastating head injury in June 2024, was sedated and ventilated for two and a half months, then remained unconscious for another half-year. His biggest fear, he said, was that he would never fully recover or communicate again, adding that regaining speech felt like a miracle.

Bini was wounded in June 2025 while his unit was placing charges in Jabaliya. A militant emerged from a tunnel, fired two bursts and hit him in the knee and back. He was evacuated by a Unit 669 helicopter to Soroka Medical Center, arriving on the exact day an Iranian missile struck the hospital. Bini says he spent six months in bed and credits surgeons, physiotherapists and occupational therapists in Soroka and Sheba for getting him from bed to wheelchair, walker, crutches and finally walking on his own.

The article says thousands of soldiers have been injured since October 7, many of them severely, and that rehabilitation is long and often incomplete. Shaul Shalom of Impact Clinic says, “The amount of casualties from this war and the types of injuries are something we have never seen.” He adds, “Pity stays at the door. We assume that everyone who comes here is a fighter.” The surfing project at SRF Park TLV cost 180 million shekels, covers 21 dunams and includes two pools with 56 motors, producing elite-level waves every few dozen seconds. The soldiers say the activity is physically demanding and emotionally uplifting, and one wounded fighter shouts after his first wave, “I’m alive! I’m fucking alive!”