After being wounded in Gaza, this marathoner is recovering one step at a time

One step at a time – it’s advice often given when confronting overwhelming challenges, a suggestion to advance carefully and concentrate on the successful completion of each stride toward the finish line. However, taking one step at a time is all the more difficult when walking is a challenge in and of itself. Walking after having your foot shredded and broken by an improvised explosive device is no small feat.

Marathon runner and Swords of Iron combat veteran Orr Sheizaf took another step forward at the Jerusalem Winner Marathon on Friday.

In 2020, the Jerusalem half-marathon was the first race in which he had competed. He had always been a long-distance runner, ever since his mandatory army service, and at 30 he decided to push himself and participate in the Jerusalem marathon. He was taken by the celebration of sport – and of life. Sheizaf said it was an “amazing atmosphere,” with music blaring, crowds cheering, and politicians and celebrities on stage welcoming visitors who had come to Jerusalem for the annual athletic event.

“I have a warm place in my heart for the Jerusalem marathon. It was the place where I understood I didn’t run so badly,” Sheizaf said wryly.

It was there that he learned that if he invested in the sport, he could go far.

The competition has taken on further meaning for Sheizaf. It is not just the site of his first race; this year’s Jerusalem marathon was also the first one he had joined since being wounded in the Israel-Hamas war.

Getting wounded in the Israel-Hamas war

Just three months ago, Sheizaf was a radioman for the reservist Battalion 8111 Kaf commander, Roey Rachamim. On Oct. 7, he was on an exercise run when the rocket alerts rang out. After a marathon of deployments to Kissufim, Re’im, Kfar Aza, and Nahal Oz, Sheizaf found himself in the middle of Gaza. Alongside fellow radioman St.-Sgt.-Maj. Ari Zenilman, the company was clearing homes before the battalion advanced toward the imposing UNRWA school that overlooked the entire area in their region of the Khan Yunis outskirts.

“It was the most stressful mission we had done so far,” said Sheizaf. “It was also the farthest we had ever gone.”

The town was empty, but there had been sightings of someone – perhaps a lookout. They weren’t certain but proceeded with caution. The first house they arrived at had a suspicious barrel at the entrance and appeared booby-trapped. Capt. Eliya Yanovsky, one of the platoon commanders, was the one to deal with the problem. He was a man of few words and lived by the motto “Actions, not words,” which was literally tattooed on his skin. He pulled a grenade out of his vest, threaded his finger through the ring, and pulled out the pin. The reservist officer tossed the metal orb. A small explosion cast 1,026 pieces of shrapnel through the air. Satisfied but still alert, Rachamim and his command squad of Sheizaf and Zenilman moved forward as another platoon took a second house.

The platoon entered the building; it was full of Hamas equipment and paraphernalia. Rachamim discussed the findings with the battalion commander before entering. In one of the rooms, Sheizaf found some documents that seemed relevant to army intelligence. Then other soldiers scanned the bushes west to their position. There was a hole in the ground.

Rachamim, Sheizaf, and Zenilman rushed outside.

“There’s a tunnel entrance; entrance confirmed!” the battalion commander shouted. “Step back; rifles on the entrance!”

Sheizaf took two steps and whirled around, rifle raised. There was a flash, and then everything went black. The blackness began to disperse, and he understood that it was smoke. Pain shot up from his left foot. His army boot was riddled with shrapnel. An IED [improvised explosive device] had been set off. Sheizaf pulled himself back inside the house. It wasn’t just his leg; his right arm was also bleeding.

Sheizaf’s compatriots began to apply tourniquets. The first one broke.

“Protect my legs; I need them to run,” said Sheizaf.

Outside the home, gunfire erupted.

“There’s an enemy in the field!” someone shouted.

Sheizaf grabbed his heavy grenadier’s rifle and lay on his back, covering one of the house’s entrances.

The other reservists again tried to apply first-aid but were rattled. Sheizaf, trained as a civilian medic, calmed them down and guided them through the process. He directed them to breathe and work slowly, and then to take off his clothes and shoe. They successfully applied the tourniquet, and Rachamim, also wounded, was pulled inside the house. Sheizaf doesn’t remember it, but another reservist, Marco, related that he had directed them how to treat the company commander as well.

The evacuation team arrived and gave Sheizaf pain medication. Sheizaf was the second person to be lifted into the air on the stretcher and whisked away from the battlefield by an armored vehicle. Everything seemed calm to him. He didn’t know that the ambush against his forces was continuing.

A helicopter swooped in, and Sheizaf was loaded inside. During the air evacuation to the hospital, he heard one of the radios. The fourth wounded soldier had died.

Was it Rachamim? Sheizaf feared.

He was brought to Soroka Medical Center, where he was wheeled, in a bed, into a hallway in preparation for emergency surgery. It was there that Sheizaf saw Rachamim in the bed next to him. He was awash with relief.

“I didn’t know that people died,” said Sheizaf. “That so many died.”

Yanovsky and Zenilman had fallen in battle. From the battalion commander’s squad, Maj. Roman Bronshtein, Maj. Evyatar Cohen, and Warr. Ofc. Etay Perry had also been lost.

Besides suffering from a broken heart, Sheizaf had broken bones in his arm and foot. Shrapnel had shredded the muscle in his thigh. A titanium rod had to be implanted in his arm.

Sheizaf’s road to recovery was record-breaking, though at times it seemed like “three months in a day.” Yet he remained positive, with the end goal ever in sight.

“I want to be able to run,” Sheizaf told the doctors.

He spent two and a half months in Soroka. At first, he couldn’t do anything himself, not even tasks as simple as brushing his teeth or taking a shower. He was confined to a wheelchair, which he steered with only his left hand.

After his doctors removed the metal pins, Sheizaf was finally able to walk with crutches. Every morning, he got up and got to work. Five days a week, five hours a day, he worked on his rehabilitation and physiotherapy. He returned home two weeks ago. While his therapy has been reduced to two treatments a week, he’s also been able to start putting his life back together.

For Sheizaf, Israel’s marathons are part of that life. He wanted to return to the Jerusalem marathon. He wanted to run again.

Sheizaf prepared himself and was then chosen by sports brand Saucony to be their ambassador for the Jerusalem marathon. Saucony had an official shoe for the marathon, and after it was unveiled Sheizaf wore a running shoe for the first time since he was wounded.

On his marathon shirt, Sheizaf had imprinted Yanovsky’s motto “Actions, not words.” But he was not the only one to bear those words on the run. He had notified the battalion that he would be participating in the marathon and welcomed them to join. He thought that only a few would come, not two dozen.

“It was very exciting, and I was especially happy to see the company,” he said.

Not only his comrades but also Zenilman’s family came clad in the black ‘Acta non verba’ Kaf company shirts. In the fallen reservist’s memory, his brother ran the 10 km. before joining the rest of the family on the walk on the community track with the company. 

“I think I can speak in the name of everyone in the company when I say we feel that they, the family, are part of the company,” said Sheizaf.

Crutch in hand, Sheizaf lined up at the starting line with the others. Just before they set off, one more racer arrived: Rachamim. On his own crutches, he pulled up to Sheizaf.

Together, in memory of the fallen, they stepped forward.

It was only 800 meters, but Rachamim, also still recovering from his wounds, was exhausted by the end. The company spent 20 minutes chatting with one another. It was an opportunity to see their friends, who were all missed dearly.

“The event was beautiful and very well organized,” Sheizaf said of the marathon.

It was an emotional day, coinciding with International Women’s Day, and the women still held hostage in Gaza were on their minds.

However, Sheizaf was frustrated by his limitations.

“I couldn’t run like I wanted to,” he said. “I hope next year I will be able to run.”

The battalion had no doubt that he would. Few epitomized the phrase acta non verba like Yanovsky did, but Sheizaf is also well suited to step into those shoes. Undaunted, he has continued to journey down the road to recovery with grueling rehabilitation. Step by step, he advanced toward his finish line. One step at a time, Sheizaf will walk. And he will run.■

The writer served with Sheizaf in the same reserve company during the Israel-Hamas war.