A video posted Tuesday by an official spokesman for the Israel Defense Force (IDF) appears to show a soldier getting blasted by a grenade and still managing to shoot a Hamas fighter.
IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari declared the footage captured the intense fighting occurring in Shejaiya, a district in Gaza city, and that the IDF soldier was a reservist from the elite Yahalom unit from the Combat Engineering Corps. (RELATED: US Warship Comes To Aid Of Merchant Vessel Battling Fire After Houthi Attack)
במסגרת הקרבות בסג׳עייה, לוחם מילואים מיחידת יהל״ם של חיל ההנדסה הקרבית הותקל בשני מחבלים מטווח אפס.
לאחר שחיסל את המחבל הראשון ונפצע מזריקת רימונים לעברו, הלוחם פעל בקור רוח, ניהל קרב יריות תוך חתירה למגע וחיסל מחבל נוסף ששהה במבנה. pic.twitter.com/rkrOQhhQAz
— דובר צה״ל דניאל הגרי – Daniel Hagari (@IDFSpokesperson) December 12, 2023
“After eliminating the first terrorist and being injured by throwing grenades at him, the fighter acted calmly, conducted a firefight while striving for contact and eliminated another terrorist who was staying in the building,” Hagari tweeted in Hebrew summarizing the video.
The video depicts the soldier calmly shooting a Hamas combatant, then surviving a blast from a grenade thrown at him from another Hamas fighter. The soldier then enters the room and shoots a second combatant at point black range.
The reservist later received medical treatment for his wounds and is in stable condition, the Jerusalem Post reported.
“This might be the most badass video released by the IDF yet,” Emanuel Fabian, a Times of Israel military reporter, described the video in a tweet.
This might be the most badass video released by the IDF yet.
Headcam footage shows a reservist of the Combat Engineering Corps’ elite Yahalom killing a Hamas gunman in an apartment in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood, before a grenade is hurled at him by a second operative. The… pic.twitter.com/3MkuyGB1cq
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) December 12, 2023
According to a post by the IDF, the Yahalom unit is responsible for clearing mines and explosives as well as forming safe passages for other units to advance against Hamas and deal with the organization’s tunnels.