'Stay with me!': The wounded IDF doctor who fought to save a soldier's life under fire in Gaza

On Friday, October 6, 2023, Master Sgt. (res.) Omer Barel was already dreaming of his post-army trip to South America. He had completed his military service as a tank commander in the IDF's 401st Armored Brigade, cut up his military ID card and started working as a bartender. Just two hours after finishing a night shift, he was called up to fight. "I sent my company commander a message: 'I'm coming.' I got on the bus with everyone else, and that's how the journey began.

We signed out equipment and started fighting," Barel recalled on the "Behind the Uniform" podcast. Fortunately, he said, the battalion had just completed a training exercise, meaning its vehicles were well maintained and at a high level of readiness. "The tanks were in perfect shape for war. We took them straight down to Nir Am," he said. At the same time, Capt. Dr. Shahaf Shay had been serving as the medical officer of the Givati Brigade's Shaked Battalion for only about a month.

"At 6:50 a.m., the phones started ringing," he recalled. After an initial assessment, the battalion's operations officer told him: "Get up, put on your uniform. Be in the battalion commander's office in five minutes." But the battalion commander had already headed south with his four company commanders. The deputy battalion commander, who met the remaining officers, told them: "There was an incident. Apparently, we've just started a war."

He also described clashes the force had encountered on its way south and casualties still in the field. "The moment they said 'wounded,' my brain went into white noise. I got into my Kia Picanto with all my equipment inside," Shay recalled. For the young doctor, the mission was clear: get south and treat whoever needed him. But commanders in his sector refused to let him leave because he was the only medical officer in the area. "Doctor, get out of the car!

That's an order!" the deputy battalion commander shouted. The argument was interrupted when the battalion aid station was dispatched to a nearby stabbing attack. Two days later, Shay finally traveled south with his unit, where the enormous responsibility resting on his shoulders began to sink in. "We were caught in a Red Alert rocket warning, and suddenly it hit me: I'm responsible for the lives of 700 people." Adir's shoes The first months of the ground operation in Gaza were marked by intense fighting and painful losses.

During the battalion's first ground raid in northern Gaza, Shay's medical team became trapped in a traffic jam inside a built-up area. He was forced to leave his vehicle and continue on foot under heavy gunfire. "Then you hear something over the radio that you hope never to hear in your life: 'The commander is down,'" he recalled. "We moved from one Namer armored personnel carrier to another, and then we saw Adir Portugal, one of my best friends in the battalion.

He told us it was a kill zone and that we should go around the other side. Adir said it, so that's what we did." The team entered a position and began treating the wounded. Then another casualty arrived on a stretcher. "I saw the shoes. Only Adir had shoes like those. It was a moment when time stopped. I raised my hand and made an X because I couldn't get a word out of my mouth." After such an experience, Shay said, a soldier must decide whether to continue or stop.

"I told myself: A battalion is a family, and you don't abandon your family, especially not during a war." Barel also endured a devastating loss before the injury that would change his life. On December 27, the tank he was driving became trapped in a kill zone. "Our friend, Capt. Neriya Zisk, went out to check what was happening and was hit. The company commander went out to rescue him and was hit too," Barel recalled. Zisk was killed, and the experience deeply shook Barel.

He went home for a brief break, but despite his family's hopes, chose to return to the front. "Everyone told me, 'Forget it, you're supposed to be discharged.' But I knew there wasn't even a question. The deputy battalion commander told my parents, 'Don't worry, I'll look after him,' and my mother answered, 'Don't make promises you can't keep.'" Four fractures in his ankle Both men paid a physical price for their determination to remain on the front lines.

Shay was wounded four times during the war. One of his most serious injuries occurred during the raid on Shifa Hospital. "We evacuated a wounded soldier and our vehicle was hit by an anti-tank missile. I was the only one injured. It was predictable that I'd be the magnet," he said. "About 40 pieces of shrapnel in my hand, two in my neck and another three in my chest." Despite his injuries, Shay initially refused evacuation. "I told them, 'I'm not being evacuated.

Everything's fine.' When I got to the hospital, I told the staff, 'Discharge form, please. I'm a doctor. I'm fine.' They told me, 'Listen, that's not how this works.'" The medical staff persuaded him to remain hospitalized for 24 hours. After that, he signed a discharge form and returned to combat. A week later, however, his shrapnel wounds became infected, forcing him to leave the battlefield again for treatment. Months into the war, Shay discovered that he was also suffering from another injury.

"I had a CT scan and discovered that I'd been fighting for two months with four fractures in my ankle and two torn ligaments. I still had that injury during Omer's incident, but something switches in your brain when an event like that happens. Suddenly, everything you ever thought would hurt in your body doesn't hurt anymore. Nothing else matters. You keep going, jumping, getting out, doing everything." 1:42 p.m.: 'An incredible explosion' On January 16, 2024, in the Daraj Tuffah neighborhood of northern Gaza, the paths of the two soldiers crossed.

Barel and his crew had gone on an offensive operation. Afterward, they entered a hangar to repair the tank's track and rest. "Suddenly, at 1:42 p.m., an incredible explosion," Barel recalled of the moment an RPG struck his tank directly. "I lost consciousness for five seconds. During that time, I saw a black screen, a white screen, and then suddenly I saw Zisk, who had been killed, telling me: 'You're not coming to me yet.' Boom, I woke up.

It was a completely surreal situation." When he regained consciousness, Barel immediately realized how severely he had been wounded. "I saw myself lying on my side, my arm was here, and I saw it had been severed. Suddenly, an unbelievable river of blood started flowing. He quickly understood what had happened and began searching for help. "Suddenly, I saw the messiah coming: the Namer evacuation vehicle. I told myself, 'OK, I just need to stay like this and I'll be fine.

They'll see me, and everything will be OK.'" Barel was lying on the tank when the medics reached him. "The medics grabbed me, brought me down and threw me into the Namer." At that point, Barel turned toward Shay, recalling the moment the doctor began treating him. "This crazy guy jumped on me and slapped me twice, like this: 'Stay with me!' He started treating me with incredible intensity, including putting a tourniquet on my leg, which was also very badly wounded.

My entire left side had taken a terrible hit." Shay explained that the slaps were part of his approach to keeping severely wounded soldiers conscious. "Two slaps were my trademark. My patients stay awake. I don't care what's happening," he said. "We were being shot at during the evacuation. We stopped the bleeding quickly, and it became clear very fast that the arm wasn't going to survive. There were extensive injuries to the leg. You understand that you're entering a rapidly developing, complicated situation."

The evacuation itself was extremely difficult. "The Namer was traveling at 45 kilometers per hour through rough terrain. Every little movement sent you flying in another direction, and in the middle of all that, you had to apply tourniquets and establish intravenous access to give blood." Yet Shay was struck by Barel's composure. "The amazing thing was that Omer remained awake and calm, without screaming or crying." Barel remembered the moment differently.

"The slaps were when I started feeling pain. They pulled me out of the trauma in a second. The pressure eased a little, and I just lay there with one thought: 'Save me.'" When he reached the helicopter, Barel overheard the medical team discussing his condition. "Near the helicopter, they said about me, 'He's not in life-threatening danger.' And that's when I told myself: OK, now just don't fall asleep. Stay awake, and everything will be fine."

The delayed visit Barel was evacuated by helicopter to Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer. Shay, who continued treating hundreds of wounded soldiers in the field, initially avoided visiting him. "It's a difficult experience as the senior medical professional," he admitted. "It's frightening to see the wounded people you've treated, because you're seeing the results of what you did, for better or worse, and you have no idea how the other person perceives it."

Despite those emotional challenges, Shay does not hide his pride in the work of the IDF Medical Corps. "The Medical Corps made history in this war. It broke through a glass ceiling," he said. According to Shay, the case fatality rate (CFR), which measures the proportion of combat casualties who die, stood at 7.1% during the war. "If we'd had the same statistics as the Second Lebanon War, there would have been hundreds more coffins." Barel agreed, praising the speed and effectiveness of battlefield medical care.

"The medicine is incredible. Evacuations are extremely fast, and many amputees who wouldn't necessarily have survived did survive." Eventually, after Barel's mother and the armored brigade's casualty officer insisted, Shay visited him in the rehabilitation department. "When I arrived at Sheba, I saw Omer sitting and smiling. Looking back, I regret not coming earlier," Shay recalled emotionally. Although it was their first meeting since the injury, Barel remembered Shay from the evacuation.

"I knew he was the battalion doctor. When I saw him during the evacuation, it calmed me down. The senior medical officer had arrived to treat me. The man in charge." From lemonade to sorbet The special bond that developed between the two men reached an emotional high point during a ceremony honoring outstanding personnel of the IDF Technology and Logistics Directorate. Shay had been invited to receive a certificate of excellence. Then, in a complete surprise, Barel walked onto the stage and presented it to him personally.

"All the air went out of me," Shay recalled. "Suddenly, you understand what happened there. I told myself that going through everything had been worth it for this." Today, Barel is doing far more than rehabilitating from his injuries. He has become a para-taekwondo athlete and has set himself an ambitious goal: representing Israel at the Paralympic Games. "When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade," he said with a smile. Shay immediately corrected him.

"What lemonade? You've turned it into sorbet. He's telling himself: 'I'm not just surviving. I'm going to live life to the fullest.'" At the end of their conversation, Shay turned to Barel. "You're one of the best things I've done in the army. As far as I'm concerned, you're a role model and a source of inspiration." Barel responded with admiration of his own. "He's being modest. He's an even more incredible person. The number of people he's saved is beyond comprehension.

I wish you nothing but continued success."