Ih the early afternoon of 8 December I was wounded in the belly and the arm. It happened about three hundred meters from the enemy lines at Iraq al-Manshiyya. I was hit by a salvo from a Browning machine gun. The place I lay could not be reached by anyone without them putting their life in extreme danger. Still I was rescued thanks to the personal bravery ofAryeh Langmann. He was also a squad leader and one of the veterans of the battalion. Three hours after being wounded I was already lying on the operating table in a military hospital.
For half an hour I lay on the ground writhing in pain, without know-ing exactly what damage the bullets had done to my insides, but sure that no one could get me out of there. This half hour was the worst expe-rience of my whole life. But when I arrived at the hospital I was quite sure that the danger was over. Only later did I learn that for twelve days the doctors and my family had been extremely concerned about me. During this period my digestive system was out ofaction and I could nei-ther eat nor drink.
Since I did not lose consciousness for a moment, I made use of the time to think about the war. I was not happy with what I thought.
For three weeks I didn’t write a single line. I lay almost motionless in bed and had nothing else to do than to think about life. After this period the pain retreated, my body slowly started working again. And I started writing again.