Kan 7.10.360 | The story of Hadad Family from Ofakim on October 7

The Hadad family is awakened by the sounds of the sirens. The father of the family, Dakar, is in the synagogue. Tali and her two daughters, Gefen and Meitav, wake Itamar, a cadet on leave, and his girlfriend. Everyone goes down together to the safe room.

Meitav, Itamar's sister, hears gunfire near the house and updates him. Itamar goes outside to check and tries to understand the situation. He speculates that this is a terrorist infiltration and therefore goes back inside, gets ready quickly, loads his weapon and runs out of the house. His mother, Tali, rushes to put on shoes, and together with his sister Meitav they follow him running.

Itamar continues to run towards the source of the gunfire. While running, Yitzhak Balti notices him and collects him in his vehicle, and together they meet Sergeant Major Avi Buzaglo. The three get out of the vehicle and start running towards the terrorists.

Itamar, Yitzhak and Avi run through the city's narrow streets following the sound of gunfire and spot a group of armed terrorists. They open fire at them and kill two of them. While Itamar is unlocking a jam, he is shot in the stomach and notices that Sergeant Major Buzaglo was shot in the head and died on the spot. Itamar and Yitzhak Balti run while having an exchange of fire with the terrorists. Yitzhak is murdered in the shooting, Itamar is shot and seriously wounded.

The wounded Itamar manages to reach one of the nearby buildings, but the occupants see that he is armed and refuse to open the door. He decides to leave his weapon in the stairwell and goes out into the street in an attempt to get help. Residents in a nearby building notice him, bring him into their home and try to give him primary care.

The tenants try to treat Itamar who is lying on the floor and losing blood. They call for assistance and after about an hour three policemen arrive at the apartment and decide to evacuate Itamar for medical treatment.

Just before they evacuate him, Itamar asks the cops to go to the next building and fetch the weapon he left in the stairwell. At the collection point of the wounded Itamar meets his mother Tali. She decides to evacuate Itamar herself to a Magen David Adom station in the city.

Tali evacuates Itamar and other injured people to the city's Magen David Adom station, where he receives initial treatment until being evacuated by ambulance to Soroka Hospital. Tali takes Itamar's personal weapon, returns to the combat zone and continues evacuating wounded to the Magen David Adom station.

While Tali is evacuating wounded people, a soldier on leave notices the personal weapon she is holding and asks for it. The soldier, Corporal Yonatan Elazari, had enlisted for boot camp in the Duvdevan unit just two months before. He takes the weapon, climbs onto a roof of one of the nearby houses and fires in the direction of the terrorists hiding in the Elbaz family home. The next day, Elazari's body will be found on the roof with many bullet casings next to him, evidence of the battle he waged until he was killed by the terrorists.

Tali and the rest of the family travel to the hospital to visit Itamar, who has undergone a series of surgeries.