Several months after he suffered severe injuries in the war-ridden Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, Ukrainian Jewish refugee David Betzalel is regaining his strength in Israel.
While his road to recovery is still long ahead, Betzalel remains optimistic. "I see how I was two months ago and I see myself now, it's a whole different person," he told Ynet in an interview at Reut Medical Center in Tel Aviv, where he arrived two months ago.
Like many others, David Betzalel, a young ultra-Orthodox Jew from Mariupol, was hit by Russian shelling that decimated the city and caused many casualties. Betzalel was injured on March 15.
"Every day, we saw the tanks and missiles, we saw people die, many soldiers and many wounded," he recalled. "We had no electricity or running water, no connection to the outer world, and I went outside to cook with my neighbors. We cooked leftovers of food that we had, and all of a sudden, there was a blast."
The blast Betzalel heard turned out to be a mortar shell that crashed close to his home.
"Suddenly I felt I was on the floor and couldn't move. I lifted my head and looked to the sides, I saw that other people were also injured and I couldn't even help myself," he described. "I didn't feel that I was injured, I didn't feel the place where the shrapnel entered my body."
Betzalel expressed his gratitude for the treatment and support he has received from Israeli medical staff, and for the complex rescue mission from Mariupol that saved him and his family.
Aside from Betzalel, other Jewish Israelis who were injured in the war in Ukraine are also receiving treatment in Israel.
"It's clear the staff here have a desire to help people," said Betzalel. "I can already function much better than I could when I first got here."
Dr. Diana Goldin of Reut Medical Center said that David had sustained a spinal injury and requires emotional support on top of medical treatment.
"It's important to say that he needs a comprehensive treatment, including mentally and emotionally," she stated. "He suffered an injury that isn't only physical, but rather also emotional. He needs humane and psychological treatment to deal with the flashbacks and trauma, and he's receiving multi-disciplinary, multi-systemic treatment here."