|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Yadin Gellman enjoyed his 30th birthday party with buddies and his girlfriend at a glamping site she’d reserved for the event. It was his best day ever.
When she woke up Gellman on Oct. 7, 2023, their lives changed when she told him that Hamas had invaded Israeli. Gellman, a lieutenant colonel in the Israeli Defense Force reserves, headed for his base in his car, while TV anchor Adva Dadon headed toward the fighting.
Gellman set this scene during a compelling 90-minute presentation, “The Longest 12 Hours of My Life” that he shared on Jan. 21 at Chabad of the Tri-Valley in Pleasanton. He’s been bringing his first-hand account of the Hamas terror attack to a variety of audiences across the United States including senior military leaders in Washington D.C.
His girlfriend, a well-known news anchor and television reporter, was the first on the scene at the music festival that Hamas brutalized, murdering men and women alike and torturing and raping women. Dadon drove her car through the festival site and gathered up children and took them to safety.
Meanwhile Gellman and his teammates had grabbed their gear and headed south to the fight. They literally were driving around shot-up, wrecked vehicles and Israeli bodies once they reached the invasion zone. After helping get victims to medical care, they were ordered to clear Hamas from Be’eri, a kibbutz near the unguarded border fence.
That meant going home-by-home to ensure they were not attacked from behind by terrorists they missed. They found horrible scenes of families burned in their safe rooms or tortured before they were killed. Because of hostages, they had to break down the door and could not fire until they could see a terrorist inside. They found themselves battling the terrorists who were hiding in a playground. There were two Israeli teams of 20 fighting an estimated 500 terrorist. Only two members of his squad survived.
Gellman and his right-hand man, approached another building and an AK-47 went off as they got near the stairs. Both were badly wounded. When their teammates tried to rescue them, terrorists gunfire drove them back. Gellman and his buddy crawled under the building where he gripped his gun tightly in case he had to fight more.
An IDF officer had commandeered a tank and they finally rescued. Gellman’s left arm was hanging by skin and a few nerves and teammate strapped it into his vest. Gellman knew his left lung was filling with blood and would take his life. A battlefield doc examined him that Gellman recognized as a famous doctor who had saved his own life by draining his lung. He distracted Gellman and plunged the drain into his lung —saving his life.
He was evacuated by helicopter and it was a touch-and-go for several days before he was out-of-the woods. Several surgeries were required to reattach his left arm. He’s still wearing it in a sling and hoping to regain more use of it.
The bullet that pierced his lung would have been expected to exit his back, instead it took a U-turn — what he describes as a miracle.
As he watched television, he became convinced his voice was needed. When CNN International reached out, he was able to convince his superiors to let him be interviewed. The two anchors were fair and have been helpful to him, he said.
Setting the scene for his talk, Gellman talked about two events that shaped his childhood and resulted in him focusing on serving in the military. The Second Intifada started in 2000. He was running to catch a bus to school when a suicide bomber blew himself and the bus up.
Two years later, when Gellman was 12 years old, terrorists exploded his vest inside a coffee shop killing a father and his daughter who were celebrating before her wedding the next day. Gellman’s family was planning to attend the wedding. He said he changed his diet, his workout and became focused on serving with the IDF. When he entered, he eventually qualified for the elite Sayeret Matkal, the Israeli special forces tasked with the most difficult missions.
He served seven years and then was led to think about becoming an actor. He convinced his leadership to allow him one day a week for acting classes so he left when his term was up and pursued acting while serving in the reserves.
He acted in a play as a soldier with four bullet wounds in his left arm and in a movie as a commander in a house-to-house fight. He said it eerily foreshadowed the events of Oct. 7. The acting prepared him for his current speaking gigs to share the first-hand truth.
Incidentally, he mentioned that he should have married his girlfriend as his life played before him while he was lying under the house badly wounded. To date he hasn’t popped the question.
He’s limiting his social media activity, but you can watch a long interview on YouTube.
Editor’s note: Journalist Tim Hunt has written columns on the Tri-Valley community for more than 40 years. He grew up in the valley and lives in Pleasanton. His “Tim Talk” blog appears online at PleasantonWeekly.com.
