Seven bullets almost claimed the life of IDF soldier Ben Ladany, when he was repeatedly shot by a Hamas terrorist in Gaza in November 2023.
The member of the elite Oketz canine unit was left severely wounded, kept in a coma for two months, and confined to a wheelchair.
But now Ladany is standing tall again – and, with inspirational positivity, is determined to share one lesson he learnt for each of those seven bullets.
Speaking last week at the JC event From Hamas… to hope at South Hampstead Synagogue with freed hostage Almog Meir Jan, moderated by journalist Nicole Lampert, the 23-year-old IDF hero recounted the lessons.
He said: “The most important thing in life is your family and friends. Why? Because family will drop absolutely everything that they have, like my mom and dad did. When my friends would come and visit me at the hospital and when I was travelling with Almog, they would take away pain.
“My second lesson, the most important thing in life is your health, physical and mental. If you look at me now, I can’t walk 100 per cent. But my mind and my soul is at one.
“My next lesson? I was there on October 7th. I saw the most horrendous and disgusting things known to mankind. But the bottom line is, the true face that I saw was the face of hatred. After October 7th, Almog and I have had many discussions. We will never hold hate in our hearts because hate hinders you.”
He explained his fourth lesson: “I remember waking up after being shot seven times in a coma, not being able to feel anything. And my dad grabs me and he goes, ‘Ben, you’re so lucky.’ Why am I lucky? I can’t feel anything. I just woke up from a coma. He grabbed me and he said, ‘Ben, the boy next to you is also in a coma. And he lost his leg. The boy next to him is in a coma and he lost both his legs.’ And the boy next to him was also in a coma. And he lost both his legs in his arm. And I learnt something. As much as I think I’m injured, there’s always worse, and there’s always less.
“My next lesson is time. My experience with time is that good things happen slowly and bad things happen in one second.
“My next lesson, and Almog and I learnt this together: motivation and manifestation. I’m not a religious guy, but Almog and I wake up every single day and we put on tefillin and we look at the sun and we say what we want. We say it. We don’t sit and ponder and think. For all the men out there that don’t put on tefillin, please learn that I’m not religious, but it is a time to say thank you and to show appreciation to Hashem.”
His final, seventh lesson was an old-fashioned view of the sexes: “Almog and I have travelled the world and we have built relationships with very powerful and successful men.
“And we always ask them, what’s the secret?
“And time and time again, all these men would look at us and say, behind every great man is an even greater woman.”
Talking about his recovery, Ladany explained how he can now stand: “I was here a year and a half ago…and I took a picture next to Big Ben sitting in a wheelchair. And a week ago, me and my mom went to Big Ben… I was standing next to Big Ben.”
Ladany, a South-African native, joined the IDF’s Oketz unit at 19 and formed a bond with his dog, Jack, who died in the ambush. After a two-month coma, Ladany was restricted to a wheelchair for two and a half years but can today walk with crutches.
Nicole Lampert in conversation with Almog Meir Jan (centre) and Ben Ladany at South Hampstead Synagogue on May 2[Missing Credit]
Almog Meir Jan was one of 43 hostages taken from the Nova music festival on October 7.
Describing his captivity in Gaza, he said: “At the start, I always, always cried. I always looked to the negative things, like how long it’s going to be, what I could do different… nothing that could help me.
“One day, I just told myself to stop and just to think about the future.”
“My family was waiting for me.”
He recalled he foresaw his freedom: “I made a calendar for myself. In this calendar, I wrote 80 boxes. And every day I marked one of the boxes and I told myself… every day in Gaza, it’s a day less. On the last box, I wrote that I’m going to be home.”
Jan was rescued after he had marked 76 boxes, one day before his mother’s birthday.
In the rescue in June 2024, Noa Argamini, Andrey Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv were also brought back from Gaza. Commander Inspector Chief Arnon Zamora of the Yamam counterterrorism unit was shot and died in the operation.
IDF bodycam footage shows soldiers storming the apartment holding Jan and giving him a fist bump. He had spent a total of 246 days in brutal captivity between eight locations.
Jan said: “I told [a soldier], ‘Please, let’s be alive after this day, because I want to make sure that I will be there on my mom’s birthday.’
“And he looked at me with full intention in his eyes and told me, ‘Don’t worry. You’re going to be the best gift to your mom ever.’”
Arriving in Israel, Jan’s mother told him his father, Yossi, 59, had passed away from a heart attack the night before, without knowing his son had been freed. “The first place that I went to from the hospital was his funeral. It was very, very hard. But something that I… now really believe, was that my father kept me safe. I know that my father looks on me from above. And he’s proud.”
Both men are optimistic about the future. Ladany said: “The hope is to be united as the Jewish people. Because alone you may walk fast, but together you may walk far.”
The event was supported by the World Zionist Organisation (WZO) in partnership with The London Jewish Legal Network. The sushi reception was generously provided by kosher supermarket Tapuach.
To see the full event go to youtube.com/@TheJewishChronicle.
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