Surrounded with love ‘from all the Jewish people’
July 4, 2016Shuki Gilboa, a volunteer in the Kiryat Arba security detail, who was severely injured in the terror attack which killed Hallel-Yaffa Ariel spoke this morning (Monday) with Army Radio about the events and his condition.
“I am surrounded by the entire Jewish people, from across the country and all over the world,” said Gilboa. “Even the doctors see it as miraculous that I am still alive. We are looking at the glass as half full. Miriam Peretz visited here on Friday and gave my wife words of encouragement. She said, ‘You have Shuki. He has no eye, but he has hands to hug the children, and feet to dance with them, and another eye to see them. “
Shuki’s wife, Shulamit, added, “With the help of God we will recover, both us and the children. We have a very supportive family, the entire Jewish nation. This is so important. It gives us strength. My husband’s neighbors and friends, instead of running away, all wants to join the security team; everyone want to protect our country.”
In the interview Gilboa described with the sequence of events of the brutal attack, “My wife had just returned from her shift [as an MDA volunteer]. I said I would go to say good night before she went to bed. Half a minute after I got home I received an alert saying that a terrorist had breached the the security fence. There was no time for hesitation. Within two minutes we were there.”
He explained, “Some of the Kiryat Arba civilian security forces were already there. But nobody realized that the terrorist was inside the house. Another member of the security squad and I came to the house, we searched it from the outside. We had no idea that we were entering a combat zone.”
Gilboa said that at that point they contacted Rabbi Amichai Ariel, Hallel-Yaffa’s father. “I said we should call Rabbi Amichai and ask if he left the house unlocked or open. He arrived and said, ‘Wait, I’m going in with you. We saw nothing suspicious, nothing out of the ordinary. We went through the living room, then we came to the bedrooms. He shouted out to Hallel and went inside. I remember his scream. The most important thing at that moment was to tell everyone what was happening. As I put my hand on the radio I saw someone in black move his hand toward mine. Within less than a second I was on the floor.”
“I love everyone and have no complaints against anyone,” says Gilboa who explained how he was hit. “Rabbi Chanoch was two meters behind me. He identified the terrorist coming from a room on the left and decided that he was about to attack me. Rabbi Chanoch had to decide whether to give the terrorist a chance to sink a knife into my neck, or to shoot a terrorist and risk injuring me. Thank God he managed to hit the terrorist and I got out alive. A bullet entered the top of my head above the left ear and came out in the area of my eye. An experience like that really puts things in perspective.”
Shulamit added, “We are still in the middle of the process. With God’s help we will find strength. There will be ups and downs, but every down is in order to rise up. May we all merit to witness the complete redemption.”
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