Severely Wounded IDF Fighters Find Recovery in Surf Therapy

A Hebrew television report follows several Israeli combat soldiers who were critically wounded in the war and are now rebuilding their lives through surfing at a new wave pool in south Tel Aviv. The fighters include reserve Staff Sgt. Harel Tang'yi, who was hit by four grenade fragments in the head in January 2024 and lost consciousness, Capt. Itai Rajiniano, who was sedated for two and a half months after a severe head wound in June 2024, and Sgt. Omar Bini, who was shot by a terrorist in June 2025 and feared he was about to die.

Tang'yi says the blast left him with lasting damage, including left-side paralysis, partial blindness, numbness, and an inability to run. Rajiniano says he was unconscious for another half-year after the sedation ended, and that the hardest part was relearning his body and regaining speech. Bini describes being hit by gunfire after a terrorist emerged from a tunnel during an assault, then being evacuated by a Unit 669 helicopter to Soroka Medical Center, which was hit by a missile the same day.

All three describe long, grueling rehabilitation, with Bini saying he spent half a year in bed and moved from a wheelchair to a walker, crutches, and then walking unaided. Tang'yi says he was “sure they had lost me completely,” while Bini thanks Soroka surgeons, Sheba physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and the medical staff who, he says, saved his life. Another soldier wounded in the head in Jabaliya in November 2024 joins the surf session for the first time.

The segment also profiles the SRF PARK TLV wave pool, built in south Tel Aviv at a cost of 180 million shekels on 21 dunams with two pools and 56 motors. Its managers say it can generate world-class waves every few dozen seconds, allowing surfers to catch 13 to 14 waves in an hour. The rehabilitative model, according to the clinic owner interviewed in the piece, uses the soldiers’ military mindset and the physical challenge of surfing to push recovery further than a standard therapy room.

By the end, the report frames their progress as part of a larger reality in which thousands of troops have been wounded since October 7, many severely. One of the men emerges from the water and shouts, “Wow! What did I do? I am alive! I am fucking alive!”