Like the countless Israelis who unexpectedly woke up to startling news on the morning of Oct. 7, 2023, Lt. Col. Daniel Elbo Arama has an enduring image that is seared in his memory.
“I’ve seen barrages of rockets from the Gaza Strip toward the territory of Israel by the hundreds,” Elbo Arama told the IJN. “But I’ve never seen so many rockets in my life. The skies were black because of the amount of rockets that were there.”
Elbo Arama, an IDF paramedic (EMT-P) and post-doctoral student in emergency medicine at Ben-Gurion University, immediately left his home in Mod’in and sped toward Re’im, site of the Nova Music Festival.
The Lt. Col., who was scheduled to be on vacation on Oct. 7, was one of the first responders at the scene, yet he felt he was too late.
“I couldn’t imagine that it was possible for me to hear real shootings of terrorists, because it was way too much into the depth of Israel,” Elbo Arama said.
“I didn’t expect terrorists to be so deep inside Israel at that point, but it took me 10 seconds, and I realized those were terrorists.
“I understood it more because their weapons were in automatic mode. All the shootings were automatic.”
Elbo Arama felt he was too late to help, though there was much to attend to.
“I put a bullet inside of the pistol,” Elbo Arama. “That was the first time in my life that I’m putting a bullet inside my pistol when it was not part of training.
“I’m not the one who is supposed to eliminate threats and all that. I’m a paramedic.
“Then, a rocket hit very close to my car, just 10 meters away.
“The guys (other medics) saw cars flipped over. They saw people running and getting shot and killed in front of their eyes.”
After talking with his commander in the Southern Command, Elbo Arama helped mobilize 19 medical crews of at least five medics in each crew, who spent the next five days attending to those injured.
“He said, ‘Elbo, go and consolidate medical forces. We need to provide medicine to whatever is now happening in the south.’
“We saved over 90 lives of civilians and soldiers on those days,” Elbo Arama said.
Since those five, intense days near Nova, Elbo Arama has monitored the collective pulse of his homeland.
“We are in distress. We are in a mental state that is not easy,” says Elbo Arama.
“The atmosphere in Israel is not very good now. Once again, we’re in the middle of a war. People are getting killed almost every day.”
That said, Elbo Arama, 36, is a survivor from what he witnessed, and he, himself, came close to death on Oct. 7 and the days that followed. That experience certainly affects his work at BGU.
“I’m very proud of this university, and people need to know that of all the senior paramedics in the IDF, all have degrees in emergency medicine from our university, including myself.
“We are a very resilient people, and we have a lot of strengths inside of us,” Elbo Arama says. “We are united even though we have our disagreements. As a nation, we are standing on our feet. We are defeating our enemies.”
The way he puts it, “We are so winning,” referring to the wars against Hamas and Hezbollah.
“Am Yisrael Chai is not only a slogan — that is the truth,” said Elbo Arama.
“Am Yisrael Chai,” he repeated.
“Our nation is alive.”
© IJN 2024
