Heroic Nurse Shot Three Times by Hamas Terrorist

Michal Elon did not expect to find herself under attack when she agreed to spend Simchat Torah at the Zikim army base in the south of Israel. Far from being a soldier, Michal is a 44-year-old mother of 10, grandmother of one, and a highly qualified nurse who heads the country-wide home care division of the Leumit healthcare fund. Michal’s husband, Rabbi Omri Elon, is an elementary school teacher. Recently, the family began volunteering at army bases, bringing the spirit of Shabbat and a family atmosphere to young soldiers who find themselves away from their families.

On Shabbat at an army base, the Elons organize prayer services and other activities for the soldiers, both male and female, who span the range of religious observance from completely religious to totally secular. Not everyone attends the prayers, but all the soldiers join the family for kiddush and Friday night meal.

“The soldiers come and talk to us,” Michal says in an interview with Aish.com. “They love the kids. We have good relationships and a good connection with them. We come back strengthened.”

When the Elons were asked to volunteer at the Zikim army base over Simchat Torah, Michal wasn’t sure she wanted to go. It wasn’t just a regular Shabbat. It was a holiday, when all of her children would be home, and she wanted to spend time with them. In the end, she agreed on the condition that all of their non-married children would come along. They came to the base with eight children, ranging in age from 20 to almost 2.

Friday night at Zikim was beautiful. “It was calm and peaceful,” says Michal. “The base is very pretty. A lot of trees, a sea breeze.” At the festive dinner, the Elons sat next to the commanders and got to know them a bit. Michal’s daughters had made Torah-shaped candies and brought them along. They gave them out to the soldiers.

After the meal, Rabbi Elon began telling stories about the Yom Kippur War, since it was its fiftieth anniversary. The stories were about friendship, self-sacrifice, and taking care of each other under difficult circumstances.

The Elons went to bed late, looking forward to interacting with the soldiers the next day. They were woken up early in the morning by the sound of explosions. Then the sirens blared. Michal and her husband woke up all the children and got them dressed. They didn’t know if the room they were staying in qualified as a shelter and weren’t sure if they should stay inside or go out and find a better shelter.

Eventually, a soldier came in and told the Elon family to follow him. They grabbed the children, the pacifier for the baby, and ran as the sky was exploding above them.

Michal and her husband Rabbi Omri Elon

It turned out that the base had two shelters, one for men and one for women. The Elons found themselves in the men’s shelter. At that point, no one had any idea that what was happening was much more than a rocket attack.

The commanders’ phones kept ringing. One by one, each of them left the shelter, despite the continued sirens. The Elons stayed with the rest of the soldiers. Rabbi Elon spoke with them, trying to calm them down. “It was all very confusing,” says Michal.

Then a soldier came into the shelter and said that Noa, a female commander, was seriously hurt. Michal didn’t understand how she was hurt. Did she fall from a watch tower? Michal told the soldier that she was a nurse and offered to help. She came out of a shelter, expecting to see a broken arm or a broken leg.

What she saw instead was a serious head injury. Much later, she found out that Noa was shot and had a bullet inside her skull. But at the time, she had no idea that terrorists had infiltrated the base and were now nearby. Noa herself had not realized that she had been shot. Fully conscious, she was restless and confused.

Suddenly, Michal heard a gunshot and the soldier fell to the floor, lifeless.

They brought Noa into a nearby room and Michal got to work, trying to stop the bleeding and clean the wound. Several soldiers came to help. One of them, Neria, stood guard at the door. Neria was one of the few religious soldiers at the base and Michal had interacted with him the night before. She was glad to have his help.

Suddenly, Michal heard a gunshot and Neria fell to the floor, lifeless. Another soldier pulled Neria’s body inside. “I didn’t know what to do,” Michal says. “I understood that we were in a very dangerous situation.”

Another soldier showed up at the door. At first, Michal was relieved that more help was coming. But when she looked at the soldier, she realized something was wrong. He was older than a regular soldier. He looked her in the eye and then started shooting at her.

Michal felt her left arm flailing and understood that she was hit. Another bullet hit her in the stomach and another in the chest. Michal took off her head covering and made a tourniquet for her arm.

The Elon family

Meanwhile, one of the soldiers in the room, Daniel, jumped at the terrorist, who had been dressed in an IDF soldier’s uniform. The soldier tried to take away the terrorist’s weapon, but the terrorist pulled out a knife and stabbed the soldier in his hand.

As they were fighting, another soldier took careful aim. He was afraid to shoot, so as not to hit Daniel. Thankfully, he managed to shoot the terrorist, killing him.

“It was a miracle,” Michal says emotionally. “These two soldiers not only saved my life but also the lives of all those in the shelter, which was only a couple of meters away.” That would have been the terrorist’s next destination, and that’s where Michal’s husband and children were hiding, along with dozens of soldiers.

Altogether, 50 terrorists tried to infiltrate the Zikim army base on that day. The commanders defended the entrance fiercely. Only four terrorists managed to get in, including the terrorist that shot Michal.

Michal doing physiotherapy

Some of the brave commanders sacrificed their lives to protect the others on the base. Seven people were murdered at the base that day. Six of them were commanders. Neria, a soldier, was the seventh.

Once the terrorist was eliminated, the surviving soldiers realized that there were three people in the room who required urgent medical attention: Noa, Daniel, and Michal. They went to get more help, and they told Rabbi Elon that his wife was wounded. He rushed into the room and began administering first aid. But the army base did not have sufficient equipment. The wounded needed to be evacuated to a hospital. At the time, no one on the base could imagine the extent of the Hamas attack. They didn’t understand why all their calls to the emergency services went unanswered.

They waited for evacuation for about four hours. Michal says, “I was weak, but I was conscious. I tried smiling to the kids, showing them that I was okay.” Michal didn’t want the children to watch her bleeding, so she asked for a screen to be placed in front of her.

The children tried to be brave. They came to visit Michal and brought her water. “They were amazing,” says Michal. “At first, they cried, but then they felt that they were on a mission. They didn’t want to show me that they were worried. They told me, ‘You’re strong. You will be fine.’”

At first, Michal was not afraid for her life. “I told myself that I wouldn’t die,” she recalls. “At worst, I would lose a hand.” But as time passed, with no ambulance in sight, she began to worry about the amount of blood she was losing and if she’d be evacuated in time.

With no ambulance in sight, she began to worry about the amount of blood she was losing and if she’d be evacuated in time.

The official ambulances never came. Later, the Elons found out that they were given an explicit order not to approach areas that were infiltrated by terrorists.

Michal, Noa, and Daniel were saved by a reservist, a high-ranking officer who had heard that something was going on in the south and decided on his own to come and help. On the way, the reservist encountered an army ambulance whose driver was shot. He jumped into the ambulance and drove to the Zikim base, where he evacuated all the wounded soldiers and Michal to the Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon.

The soldiers survived. Daniel is already home. Noa is in rehab and, though it’s been a journey, now she is walking and talking again.

Michal stayed in Barzilai Hospital for only two hours. The hospital received hundreds of wounded that day, and they did not have the capacity to take care of all of them. Michal was transferred to the Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, where she immediately had surgery. The doctors managed to extract the bullet from her stomach. They decided to leave the bullet in her chest, since it didn’t touch any vital organs and it was too risky to take it out.

Michal speaking to an Aish Solidarity Mission

After a week, Michal was transferred to the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital, where she had a very complicated surgery on her hand. Over a week later, she went to rehab, where she spent another three weeks. She is now attending a day rehab program where she receives physical and occupational therapy and tries to regain the use of her left hand as much as possible. “I might need another surgery,” she says. “They say it takes time.” Fortunately, Michal is right-handed and is grateful that her right hand wasn’t injured.

My family got very strong and united in what we went through together.

Michal says that she has become a stronger person as a result of this ordeal. Her children were certainly traumatized. One child can’t sleep, while another child is having nightmares. An older child is afraid to stay home alone. The children are receiving psychotherapy. Michal says that she is very blessed to live next door to her twin sister and her family, who are a tremendous source of support. “My family got very strong and united in what we went through together,” Michal concludes.

As the Elon family recovers, the war rages on. But Michal believes that when this war is over, our nation is going to be stronger, not only physically but also spiritually. “I saw the soldiers there, and they were amazing,” she says. “They were committed to their friends, they wanted to fight, they looked to help. It was amazing to see.”

Michal was also moved by the unity she felt all around. In the hospitals, complete strangers, religious and secular, came to visit her because they just wanted to help. “They came with things to give us, to ask what we needed, to give us food. Many people call me and ask me how I am. The unity is very strong. It is very clear that Jews are together. It’s a very strong feeling.”

“I feel that all Jews are connected,” Michal continues. “Even Jews in America or elsewhere feel very close to what happens here. What we need to do is really unite, to reconnect to who we truly are. It’s very clear that we have a mission in this world. Am Yisrael, the Jewish Nation, you have a job to do. Wake up!”