Yaakov Vaknin, 21, a lone soldier from Be'er Sheva who served as a driver in the IDF’s Gaza Division, was at the Kisufim military base in southern Israel on October 7. On that Saturday, he and his friends were sieged inside a bomb shelter by terrorists who opened fire at them and threw about 20 grenades and explosives at their position. Vaknin was seriously wounded and evacuated to the Soroka Medical Center, where he is being treated in the rehabilitation department.
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"At around 7:25 a.m., the fighting first began," he recounted, "only I and another armed friend remained in the bomb shelter. The terrorists shot at us and threw about 20 grenades at our position, some of them detonated, and some didn't. We managed to chuck some of them outside. They didn't go away. I was injured, my leg was bleeding.”
“At 9:30, they threw a large explosive charge, and it rolled toward us. We all lay close to the wall, and it rolled toward the door. I realized it would explode in seconds. Had it exploded close to us, none of us would’ve survived,” he added.
“I approached the explosive charge and, with my remaining strength, nudged it away with my still-functioning right foot. It rolled to the other side of the wall and detonated. In that instant, my entire body tensed,” he said.
"It wasn't a regular explosion. My ears were buzzing. The smoke was so thick and dark that the shelter was filled with darkness for five minutes. I realized that the terrorists could get inside, so I fired at the door. I only had two bullets left in my clip. I asked a friend to bring me the weapon of another soldier. I aimed at the openings and told myself, 'Whatever happens, happens,'" he recounted.
He added, "Later, I spotted a terrorist sitting down, and told myself that I had to eliminate him, or else he would notice us. I hit him. To my right, a female soldier was sitting down and didn't utter a word for hours after passing out. She woke up and started screaming, and I held her mouth to keep her quiet. She asked me to hold her hand."
When Vaknin tried to get up, he felt that his leg was not functioning. "I was conscious and bleeding. I had a fracture in my left leg, a bullet in my hand, shrapnel and fractures in my ribs. Only my leg bothered me," he said. He was evacuated to the hospital only by Saturday evening.
"I hope that within a month or two, I’ll stand up on my own. I want to return to the military and complete a full service. They need us. That's what gives me the strength to go on. I want to go back to the border communities. It's my second home. My mission is to protect these communities. And I aspire to return as soon as possible."
Vaknin’s friends who were killed in the battle in Kisufim on October 7 are Major Raz Peretz, Staff Sergeant Benyamin Belay and Staff Sergeant Brando David Flores Garcia.
Dr. Iuly Treger, head of Soroka Medical Center’s rehabilitation department where Vaknin is hospitalized, said, "It's a small and homely department. It will take time for Yaakov to get his strength back. He won’t be returning to his unit yet. But compared to how he arrived, he’s in good condition. We’re already planning on how and when he can return home."