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The IDF Officer Who Ran 8 Miles to the Gaza Border on Oct. 7 to Fight Terrorists
(Times of Israel) When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the U.S. Congress on July 24, he named four Israeli soldiers who had been heroes. The first was 2nd Lt. Avichail Reuven, who ran 12 km. (8 miles) to the Gaza border on Oct. 7 to help fight off the terrorists. He was interviewed by Israel's Channel 12 News on Aug. 16. Reuven, in the midst of officer training, was home that Saturday in Kiryat Malachi when he was awakened by sirens. After hearing the news of a massive terrorist infiltration into the Gaza border communities, he decided to go and help even though he had not been called up. He went out to the main interchange near his home and started running, "with sirens all the time and rockets falling in the area." He finally caught a ride with a civilian whose child had been at the Supernova music festival, and then another with a police car, to reach the fighting at the Zikim training base, which had been infiltrated by terrorists that day. "Half the base was burned....You could see terrorists running all around the area." He helped fight off terrorists and reached a bomb shelter where some 30 female basic training soldiers were waiting, one of whom was injured. Reuven tended to her wound. He then went on to nearby Yiftah, Kfar Aza, and Kibbutz Be'eri, together with Col. (res.) Erez Eshel, who had driven to Zikim from his home. "I meet a mission-driven young soldier," Eshel told Channel 12. "He's completely in it, he can handle his gun, he's calm, he's focused, and he can handle anything. He is a real super soldier." Reuven is now a company commander for paratroopers in basic training. He comes from a family of immigrants from Ethiopia. Reuven told Channel 12, "I want to continue in the army. It's my mission, it's what I believe in."