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In the last year more than 1,200 injured heroes have joined our organization.

Heroes like Amit Bar'el, the father of two young daughters. Here is his story.

Amit Bar’el never in a million years believed it could happen to him. Neither did his wife, Efrat…

After a trip to the supermarket in Kiryat Ono one summer morning during the Second Lebanon War, something moved Efrat to go on to the internet. She hadn’t heard from Amit since he’d been called up to emergency duty a few weeks before.

When she saw the headline that the Alexandroni Brigade had two wounded, one critically, she knew in her heart it had to be Amit…and it was.

At the exact time Efrat had been in the supermarket, Amit had climbed up to the roof of a house in Ras el Biyada in Lebanon. As he opened the door to the roof, there was a loud boom.

An anti-tank missile, fired from a distance of 250 meters away, exploded in front of him. Amit flew backwards down the stairs and everything after that remains a blur. Amit’s fellow reservists injected him full of painkillers and carried him on a stretcher, constantly resuscitating him while running uphill toward a waiting helicopter.

Amit took the full force of the blast in his head. Both of his eyes were crushed. When Efrat reached the hospital in Haifa, she learned that Amit was in critical condition and undergoing surgery. That was two years ago.

Tragically, Amit’s eyesight is gone — but he’s alive. He and his family are so deeply grateful for that. Ask him what he misses most about losing his sight and he’ll tell you that it’s seeing his little daughters. He can still hear them and hug them. But he’ll never “see” them grow from children into young women and that breaks his heart.

Amit sees life as a glass half full and tries to always find the good in every situation. Among the most important of those good things is Beit Halochem in Tel Aviv. That is where Amit goes regularly for a variety of therapy and sport activities that help him to strengthen his body and learn to navigate in his new world. He is able to spend time with others who have also been wounded. They give each other encouragement and support.

At Beit Halochem, Efrat can talk openly with other spouses about her fears and concerns for the future, while taking art and computer lessons. Beit Halochem's water park is the favorite place for Amit and Efrat's two daughters, Lior and Ziv.

When you ask Amit what has made his recovery possible, he will tell you first and foremost the love of his family, and then Beit Halochem. State-of-the-art Centres in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Nahariya and the soon to be completed Centre in Beer Sheva offer many services including: therapeutic devices, specialized equipment, physiotherapy, hydrotherapy, sport coaching and cultural activities.

It is your devoted partnership with Aid to Disabled Veterans of Israel, Beit Halochem Canada that makes everything we do for injured Israeli soldiers, victims of terror and their families possible.

We are committed to the continued development and improvement of the Beit Halochem Centres.

Israel stands strong as a symbol of Jewish spirit, culture and safety for all Diaspora Jews. These achievements came at a very high price — more than 51,000 Israeli disabled veterans and victims of terror!

Not only do we have a responsibility toward the young veterans like Amit, injured in the Second Lebanon War and during the daily fighting in Gaza, we must also continue to support the older disabled veterans from Israel's many wars.

At this crucial time in history, please join us in caring for those who have so courageously given of themselves to defend our precious Jewish homeland for the past 60 years.

Every day, unfortunately, we have new members. Beit Halochem is there for them from the time they are injured and for the rest of their lives.

There are more than 51,000 Israeli disabled veterans and victims of terror who turn to Beit Halochem for vital services. Here are some of their stories:

Haran Yaffe, an Israeli who loves his country with a passion, proudly served his time in the Israel Defense Forces as a combatant in the Engineering Corps and was discharged as a Staff Sergeant.

An energetic young man, Haran was filled with a joyous love of life and music. His singing career was on the rise, and he’d begun recording his first album. He’d completed just one song when he was called up during the Second Lebanon war.

Haran went into combat and four days before the war ended, he was trapped in an armoured personnel carrier when it was hit by Hezbollah fire. He was helicoptered to Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center, where doctors fought desperately to save his life. Haran was considered to be the most critically wounded soldier to survive the Second Lebanon War. READ MORE ...
The village of Debel in Lebanon was meant to be a safe rest stop. The IDF paratroopers had already been there. Moran Harel, of the 551st Regiment of the Combat Engineering Corps of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), had been called away from his family business to report for active duty in the third week of the Second Lebanon War. Under cover of night, they marched toward the village of Rashaf, with an anticipated safe stop in Debel. Once there, they took over the skeleton of a two-story house under construction.

At 11:00 a.m., as Moran was on guard duty, an anti-tank missile fired by Hezbollah slammed into the house, hit the door post, and continued on, striking several soldiers along the way, including Moran. Three minutes passed. Another missile hit, this time right where Moran lay.

READ MORE ...

Five days before the ceasefire with Lebanon, First Lieutenant Asa'el Lubotsky’s life was changed forever when a missile hit his armored personnel carrier (APC). Here, he tellls his story:

"The guys fighting in Bint Jebeil were in distress. They were short of food, water and medicine. As we had no approval to land a helicopter on site, we had to drive the supplies along a tortuous route, by-passing enemy villages in an attempt to avoid getting hit.

"Suddenly, I noticed a glare of light coming from a few hundred metres away. Seconds later I heard the boom on the back side of the APC. All of us were wounded.

READ MORE ....
Sergeant Or Bar-On, 20, was afraid of dying when a missile hit his tank on July 20, 2006, during the battle at Maroun al-Ras in Lebanon during the Second Lebanon War.

Or describes that fateful morning when an explosion rocked his tank: “I felt a kind of searing pain that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. It was like being in hell ... I saw that my legs had been hurt, the lower part seemed to be gone.

READ MORE ...

"The loss of my legs cannot compare to the loss of my 5 special friends," says Ofer Varfel, who was disabled while on a commando mission.

READ MORE ...
“I am a survivor of terror…. NOT a victim. My motto is to live and to live at any cost," says Kinneret Bosani, who was gravely injured in a terrorist attack in a coffee shop where she worked.

READ MORE ...
"Blindness is not the end of the world, " says Eyal Neufeld, who was blinded in a terrorist attack on a bus. Then a soldier in the IDF, Eyal was on his way back to his post. "Every passing day you learn something new … it’s not easy but I have no option!"