Over the past five weeks, Israel has been fighting a ground war with Hezbollah, responding to sustained rocket fire from Hezbollah targeting Israelis all over the North. The news cycle covers this only through headlines, rockets, and operations. But inside the hospitals, the reality looks different.
Nearly 100 soldiers have been injured, five of whom have lost limbs. All of them are at the very beginning of a long road they did not choose.
We know what to do when a soldier is injured. We send another soldier, someone who has already been there, who has lived through the same injury and found a way forward.
“I felt a spark. It grew to a flame. It made me want to live again.” — BFL soldier
That moment changes everything. A future full of pain and uncertainty turns into a path forward with a brother or sister who will introduce them to the new family of injured soldiers who are recovering just like they are.
This week, we moved between hospitals in the North and Center, sitting with the wounded and meeting their families. The details are different in every room, but the need is the same. The severely injured are already in BFL, and the rest will join in the months ahead.
Yaniv Leidner
Yaniv is the CEO and co-founder of Brothers for Life, overseeing the organization’s daily operations. He resides in Leshem, Israel, with his wife and their five children.
As a former company commander in the Duvdevan unit, Yaniv served with distinction. On the sixth night of Hanukkah in 2004, during an operation to apprehend a terrorist, he was shot through the hip—a wound that still carries the bullet as a reminder of his sacrifice and resilience.