Two Israeli soldiers seriously wounded in a rare cross-border incident in Syria were airlifted by military helicopter to Rambam Medical Center in Haifa late Friday night. Both arrived with life-threatening gunshot injuries and were immediately taken into surgery. One of them was shot in the chest; the bullet pierced his protective vest and lodged in his heart.
“Upon arrival, he was rushed to the operating room to stop the bleeding and stabilize his condition," according to Professor Gil Bolotin, head of cardiac surgery at Rambam. "The surgery was complex and involved opening the chest both from the side and center to identify and halt the source of the bleeding. The bullet had passed between heart chambers, punctured them, and remained inside.”
Evacuation of wounded soldiers after the exchange of fire incident in Beit Jan in Syria
(Video: Rambam Medical Center)
After an emergency consultation, the surgical team made a unanimous decision to leave the bullet in place. “We managed to stabilize him, and he is now conscious and communicating,” Bolotin said. “We will continue to monitor his condition. We may need to operate again to remove the bullet, possibly via catheterization, but there’s also a real possibility that the bullet will remain where it is.”
Both wounded soldiers are currently in intensive care at Rambam, in stable condition and under close supervision.
The incident — the first to result in Israeli casualties from gunfire in Syria since the fall of the Assad regime — left six IDF officers and reservists wounded. It began with an arrest operation targeting operatives of the al-Jama'a al-Islamiyya group in Beit Jinn, about 11 kilometers from the Israeli border. At least 13 terrorists were reportedly killed in the exchange.