Wounded French immigrant soldier: I want to return to my comrades

IDF Corporal Gabriel Ben-Naim, 22, is still recovering from serious injuries he sustained in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge, but the lone soldier, who moved to Israel from France last year to volunteer in the army, feels ready to return to the front with his friends in the Golani Brigade.

"It is obvious to me, even now that I am injured, that I belong with the guys -- and the guys are all in the army," Ben-Naim said. "I will do everything I can to go back. I am here because I am a Zionist. If they came to me now and asked me to go into Gaza again, I wouldn't hesitate."

When Operation Protective Edge began, Ben-Naim's battalion was called to the Gaza border from northern Israel. He didn't tell his parents that he would be fighting in Gaza because he didn't want them to worry.

"I only remember entering a home somewhere in the Gaza Strip, and then there was an explosion," he said, recalling the incident in which he was wounded.

"They told me that I was in a coma for two days. I told myself, 'If I survived this, I can survive anything. At the beginning, the doctors did not think I had much of a chance. They told me that it is a miracle that I am alive.

"Then I had to deal with my mother, who didn't know I had been in Gaza."

When Ben-Naim's parents, Nelly and Robert, were informed of his injury, they rushed to see their son at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba.

Ben-Naim still has two weeks of rehabilitation to complete at Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer, where he is now hospitalized.

On Sunday in Jerusalem, he will receive a certificate of recognition for his service at a special event for soldiers organized by the French community in Israel. The event is an initiative of the Knesset Lobby for Immigrants from France and French-Speakers, chaired by MK Yoni Chetboun (Habayit Hayehudi).

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