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THIS IS Eden Ram, a First Lieutenant who was shot 12 times on October 7 and defied all odds by learning how to walk again.
Eden was the officer on duty in the Urim Southern District Base in Israel when she heard sirens, missiles, and rumours that Hamas had infiltrated their military compound.
First Lieutenant Eden Ram was shot 12 times by Hamas on October 7[/caption] Eden was able to walk only a month and a half after being shot[/caption]She ran to the most protected area on her base, the Operations Room, where she waited alongside six other officers.
Eden recalled hearing Hamas detonating explosives in order to access the Operations Room. How they got in, slowly, door by door, until there was only one door separating them.
It was at this point that she started sending goodbye messages to all of her loved ones.
Hamas eventually blew up the last door and fired all of their gunpower into the officers without pausing.
Eden said: “When they were done, they waited a little, spoke in Arabic, searched for documents, checked that we were dead, and then left.
“Throughout all this I was not sure if I was dead or alive. I felt dead, but I could still see and hear and feel. I waited for the final bullet that would hit and kill me, but it never came.”
She remembers lying there, bleeding out in between the bodies of her dead friends and colleagues, when she felt somebody’s breath.
Only her and her friend Sahar survived the attack.
As Eden lay there, Sahar jumped into action, immediately taking off her uniform to give first aid.
Eden said: “I began to touch my whole body to see where I was hit, how much I was bleeding, and how much time I had left to live. I felt like I was dying.”
The pair then continued to play dead, and waited together for four hours until rescue arrived.
Although Eden later revealed that she was in so much pain she couldn’t say a word anyway.
Eventually, a team of responding commandos were able to reach them.
They described “total chaos” and a “pile of bodies”, but said that they found two alive in between the corpses. This included Eden, who they described as “completely white and immobile”.
After being rescued she was taken to Soroka Hospital, Beersheba, where she was finally able to call her family and tell them she was alive.
She was soon moved to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Jerusalem, where she had two operations.
Eden said: “I had been shot 12 times — bullets in my legs, my left hand and my shoulder.
“I thank God who watched over me and was with me in that room.
“I still can’t believe that I am here, that I am alive, and God willing I should be able to regain full function.
“It is simply a miracle.”
In the first 48 hours, doctors fought to save her life. For three days after, she was put on ventilation and kept heavily sedated.
Now, a month and a half after being shot 12 times, Eden has been speeding through the rehabilitation process.
Just days ago, she walked to receive an award from the president of Israel. During the ceremony she made a speech in which she detailed how grateful she is to be alive.
She said: “I am excited to stand before you alive and breathing, rehabilitating and coming back to life.
“The difficult moments will accompany me forever. I had hard thoughts about whether I was even alive and if I would be able to hold on.
“But then a miracle called me. At the hospital, I was born again.
“Every day I take another step in my rehabilitation journey. Just yesterday I was back on my feet for the first time.
“At Sheba there are people who do holy work and remind us that the power lies in the love of man.
“This is where the actual revival takes place. The people of Israel are alive.”
Eden’s fierce resilience follows the news that Israel has just deployed a battalion of their best, strongest and most professional female fighters to carry out a special op in Gaza.
29-year-old Major Shira, the commander of this elite all-female team, described their actions in the Gaza Strip as “another glass ceiling shattered”.
She said: “We are fighters alongside men and in cooperation with special units.
“This is a high point, another glass ceiling that has been shattered.”