Today, (Thursday), Ichud Hatzalah published the story of Dr. Tarek Abu Arar, one of their volunteers and a Muslim doctor who was held hostage by Hamas and rescued by an Israeli SWAT team.
“On Shabbat morning, Dr. Tarek Abu Arar, a volunteer doctor for Ichud Hatzalah, a resident of Ar’ara in the Negev, left his home for a routine shift in the emergency ward of Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon,” Ichud Hatzalah said.
According to them, when he arrived at the junction next to Sderot, he encountered a person who appeared wounded and lay at the side of the road. “In those hours, there were no reports of any infiltration by terrorists,” Dr. Abu Arar said. “20 minutes before, there was some sort of red color siren or something, so I just decided to put on the protective vest I got from Ichud Hatzalah and drove off. When I saw the wounded person on the side of the road, of course I immediately stopped to help them.”
Abu Arar continued his recollection: “I started to come closer, it looked to me like a soldier lying on the side of the road. When I was at a distance of about 50 meters from him, he signalled me to come closer. I walked a few more steps and when I was at a distance of about 10 meters from him, he shot me in the chest. Just like that, suddenly, out of nowhere. I started yelling and praying, I was convinced I was about to die and didn’t understand what was happening and then I heard someone shout in Arabic: ‘Stop, stop, he’s Arab.’ This is the moment I understood that they were Hamas terrorists.”
“I was used as a human shield for the terrorists”
The rescued doctor described the conduct of the terrorists: “When I looked behind me, I saw about ten other men in military dress coming from outside the bushes who began to interrogate me in Arabic. They asked me questions to check my knowledge of Islam. They had AK-47s and very advanced military equipment and they had green uniforms that looked very similar to IDF uniforms.”
He continued: “They forced me to stand at the center of the junction, in the middle of the road, and told me: ‘That’s it, we have a hostage, the IDF can’t take us out from the air, anymore,’ and then they started to fire on every car that passed us. Unfortunately, they took care to kill everyone who came their way. It was terrifying and it continued for two hours. When the army arrived, a gun battle started between the terrorists and the soldiers, with me serving as a human shield for the terrorists.”
“One of the terrorists shot me in the foot and signalled that the next bullet would be in my head. I Started to bleed pretty massively. This whole time, I prayed for a miracle. I was convinced I was about to die. It continued for about 45 minutes and then a SWAT team came. They took out the terrorists and saved my life. They put a tourniquet on my leg and the ambulance that came took me to Soroka hospital, where I was treated and released a few hours later.”
“It was the worst experience of my life. I’ve devoted my entire life to helping others and saving life, both in my profession as a doctor and in my volunteering at Ichud Hatzalah. I was forced against my will to witness this terrible massacre done in front of my eyes and I couldn’t do anything. It was horrifying, I have no words to describe it, just terrible.”
Dr. Tarek is a volunteer doctor at Ichud Hatzalah and is presently recovering at home after being released from the hospital. He is one of six Ichud Hatzalah volunteers wounded since the start of the war.
