NY native recounts surviving sniper fire during IDF deployment in Gaza, calls for rescue of hostages
LONG ISLAND (WABC) -- A world away from the carnage in Gaza, Aaron Boures, IDF soldier, described the moment his life changed forever.
As the Long Island born marketing executive and his reserve IDF platoon searched an abandoned Gaza village, for entrances to Hamas terror tunnels.
And the unit, walked into an ambush.
Aaron's commanding officer Omri David was picked off by a sniper and shot in the head.
"I wanted to be in squad. I trust him. Great smile, contagious personality. Great leader," Boures said. "His comms person went down as well so it was "fff fffft" very quickly one, two, now both of them are on the ground I was in a state of shock for a few seconds.
After returning fire, Aaron went to his brothers in arms but the sniper found him too.
And then bam! It feels like a cannonball just ripped my leg right off, I start to crawl back to the house as fast as I can. As I'm doing that one of the bullets from an AK strikes me in my left leg. I keep crawling, shards go in my right side," he said.
But Aaron made it.
A team airlifted him to a Tel Aviv hospital, where he endured five months of surgeries and rehab.
Finally out, this week he visited his childhood home on Long Island. as debate rages back and forth over the new invasion of Rafah, in the south. Just today, more casualties among the IDF.
Five soldiers, killed in friendly fire, while Israel's seizure of the Rafah crossing has stunted humanitarian assistance to civilians.
The pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as intense as ever to stop the fighting.
"We have to stop the military operation, make a deal with Hamas to return the hostages," Ehud Olmert, former Prime Minister of Israel, said. "I think most IDF soldiers I know are pro peace."
But Aaron says Hamas has had ample opportunities to return the hostages. And until that happens, he doesn't see any orders from the war cabinet to lay down their arms.
"I can't tell you if going into Rafah is going to make even one hostage if we're gonna discover even one hostage from this new operation. I can tell you that stopping the operation and allowing 131 hostages to stay in the Gaza strip is a decision for any politician that would be very difficult to justify," Boures said. "There are citizens of Israel, there are citizens of the U.S. also, that are trapped in Gaza. We don't know their fate dead or alive. Gotta get em out."
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