10/7 and the battles in Sderot hit Captain D. of the Paratrooper Brigade close to home - and to his heart, when his loved ones were in real danger. 

Now, he returns to those moments in which emotion clashed with the mission, to the rescue of loved ones who became family, and the difficult decision that ultimately led to him becoming a company commander

Captain D., then a company commander in the paratroopers, began the day on 7.10, when he was in the Judea and Samaria sector with his fighters. A few hours later, he was already in the midst of a battle in Kfar Aza - where, among other things, he also rescued his partner's sister.

D. ​​is no stranger to the sights of the surrounding area and life in communities along the border. 

On the contrary, this is one of the reasons why he became an officer. "As a child in Sderot, I absorbed many values ​​from the environment, and I felt that I had to take them a step further and have a direct impact," he describes, and immediately tries to recreate that day, "and suddenly the streets that I knew so well became a battleground. 

While my wife was locked in her house in Kfar Aza, I was fighting right next door." 

As mentioned, he spent that Shabbat in Judea and Samaria. "As soon as we realized what was happening, we left everything and rushed to reinforce the south. Me and four other fighters took a car and drove there as fast as possible." 

When they arrived, they witnessed the harsh scenes that unfolded: "That moment is deeply etched in my memory. Seeing the enemy inside your house, on the streets, in the neighborhoods – it's something that accompanies me to this day. I felt that the place where I grew up had been desecrated."

Later, when they were operating in the industrial area of ​​Sderot, between exchanges of fire, the commander found a second to look at the messages he had received from Barr: "We have terrorists here." He did not hesitate for a moment: "I rushed to Kfar Aza and tried to enter. At first it didn't work, and then we were given a mission to take over the neighborhood where Bar's sister lived, along with her husband and the girls."

Captain D. knocked on the door of their house, but the family inside didn't know whether it was fighters who had come to rescue them or armed terrorists.

"I shouted at her, 'Likosh, it's me, open the door!'" he recalls. "I went in to open the door, saw that the girls were okay - and I calmed down." Since that day, as he says, the bond between D. and Bar's relatives has become a deep, inseparable family bond.

Throughout the days that followed in the battle, D. couldn't stop thinking about Bar, even after he discovered that she had survived thanks to other forces who rescued her. 

"Why wasn't I there to rescue her?" he recalls those moments. "For me, this is the biggest wound, but I was assigned a specific mission. I am a commander and I have responsibility first and foremost for my fighters. The tension between emotion and professionalism that day was the most noticeable thing - in retrospect, I know it was the right thing to do."

From there, he and the team continued on to long and difficult days of combat, during which they experienced complex encounters and even lost comrades in arms. But amidst all the darkness, Captain D. had the opportunity to reunite with Bar in Sderot and gather new energy to continue the fighting. "It was very exciting," he shares, "I've been waiting for this for a long time."

Like all fighters, Captain D.'s next step was of course the maneuver in the Gaza Strip and later in Lebanon. There, too, the officer experienced many moments that stayed with him: "During one of the rounds in the south, we took an RPG into the house we were staying in - and we lost a team member. The feeling that the responsibility was on me, knowing that now I was the one who had to pick everyone up and lead them forward, was one of the most significant command challenges I experienced. It accompanies me to this day, especially when one of my fighters is still in rehabilitation."

After such an intense period as a commander in active combat, Captain D. had doubts about his future. After thinking and deliberating, he decided to take the company commander course. "October 7 caught me at the deepest point possible," he testifies, "I began to ask myself questions: What is my place as a commander in the IDF? What is my right to leave the army when the war is still going on? When not all the hostages are home yet?"

Many doubts accompanied the decision to continue serving: "There were tensions with my family and partner. At first, I even wanted to be released, but when I left the conversation about my release, I felt that it was not the right step for me, and that I had to continue."

Three reasons stood behind my decision:

The sharp transition from combat back to training can be complex, of course, but Captain D. saw it as an opportunity for renewal. "I left the war with personal, professional, and mental baggage," he explains. 

"The course I just finished gave me time to process things, and to arrive more prepared for the next stage. In the near future, I am going to start my role as a company commander in paratrooper training, and I feel that this is the right way for me to contribute as much as possible."