[IS National News] Israel Defense Forces soldiers wounded in recent rounds of battle and terror took part in 10 days of vacation and rehabilitation in sun-drenched Palm Beach and Miami.Dvir Taman, who was injured in Operation Protective Edge and spent 8 months in the hospital, said, "It’s been ages since I’ve felt so good, so comfortable and safe. It’s more than just fun; it’s oxygen for me."
Born-and-bred Jerusalemite Taman, 29, always knew that he’d one day serve in the IDF. Growing up in the wake of the second intifada, with the daily headlines screaming of stabbings and bus bombings, he was spurred by idealism and fervent desire to protect family and friends. At 19, he enlisted in the IDF and joined a special undercover border police unit working within Jerusalem.
Operation Protective Edge broke out in 2014 following the kidnapping and murder of 3 Israeli teens which resulted in the retaliatory lynching of an Arab teen from Jerusalem’s Arab neighborhood of Shuafat. When Israeli intelligence discovered that a band of terrorists was planning a massive terror attack on the Jerusalem Light Rail which passes through Shuafat, Dvir’s unit and a SWAT team were sent late at night into Shuafat to take down the terrorists.
Ultimately, the terrorists learned that they were coming, and when they entered the neighborhood, they found it in chaos.
"It was literally a war zone with fire and stones fired everywhere. As we were chasing the terrorists through the village, an Arab dropped a cinderblock from a height of four floors onto my head. Luckily, it missed my skull and hit only my back and shoulders, because otherwise, I wouldn’t have made it out of there alive," Dvir recounts his bloodcurdling tale.