Tali Hadad, a 48-year-old mother of six from Ofakim, heard gunshots on Saturday morning and encouraged her soldier son, Itamar, to grab his weapon and go see what was happening. She ran outside and followed him until she saw him get into a car with two other armed Israelis. 

The trio set off and soon managed to kill two terrorists. Tragically, Itamar’s companions were also killed and he continued on by himself. Meanwhile, Tali heard neighbors yelling that there were many people injured and killed in the streets and ambulances were not coming.

Tali told Ynet that she began running home under gunfire. With the help of a stranger who brought the keys from her young daughter, she got hold of her car. She asked people to help her find anyone needing transport to the local Magen David Adom first-aid station. 

The first person brought to her was, shockingly, her own son Itamar. He’d been shot four times by Hamas infiltrators.

“I drove him and the other injured to the MDA station at the entrance to the city and then came back to pick up more. I was driving at 120 kilometers per hour like crazy, alone in the city. There was no one on the streets, not even birds, only terrorists everywhere. And I rush and pick up another group of wounded. And I’m carrying them under fire again.”

She made three trips, bringing a total of 13 people for medical care. “In every block of buildings there were gunshots and smoke bombs, as well as shouts of ‘Allah Akhbar.’”

Only then did Tali drive to the hospital to see Itamar coming out of surgery. “His liver was cut in two, his gallbladder was torn, and he had a bullet in his leg,” she said.

When asked where she found her courage, Tali explained that each of her four sons is a soldier, the youngest now stationed at the Lebanese border. “The spirit in our home is the spirit of fighters.”