Nine months after over 2,900 militants entered Israel, Israelis continue to live with the scars of October 7th. IDF Major Doron Balahcan shared with a group gathered in Edina how this day devolved from a quiet predawn run near his home in northern Israel to a nightmare on Zikim Beach and ultimately left him pinned in an irrigation ditch with two bullets lodged in his leg and his helmet.
Hamas’ attack began at sunrise. But it was nearly 5 hours before Major Balahcan reached the sand dunes between Kibbutz Zikim and Zikim beach with a group of other soldiers. Sweeping across the parking lot, they first witnessed the barbarity of the attack. Unarmed civilians trying to escape, shot dead in their vehicles. The images still haunt Balahcan. Roughly 11 Hamas terrorists had attacked by sea and were continuing to hold the beachhead with assault rifles, RPGs, and grenades.
Despite only carrying a handgun and 6 magazines of ammunition, Balahcan engaged one of the terrorists in hand-to-hand combat, eventually taking the terrorist’s rifle and killing him with the barrel of the weapon. Another militant was captured, and the rest killed. The team continued to sweep the beach facilities. Opening the woman’s changing room, Balahcan saw two bodies with signs of abuse. He alerted the other commander and they both finished the sweep before placing a guard at the door. After taking stock of the ammunition, the troops cleaned sand from their weapons and took 3 confiscated RPG rockets towards the besieged Kfar Azza.
Immediately after entering Kibbutz Kfar Azza their vehicle came under machine gun fire. The driver swerved off the road into an irrigation ditch near the edge of the first row of houses. The whole unit was pinned down, being picked off one by one. Balahcan’s decades of tactical experience enabled him to identify the source of the fire. He jumped out of the ditch covering his troops while they fired the stolen RPG directly at the house sheltering roughly 25 terrorists. Silence came over the battlefield as Balahcan became dizzy and realized that a bullet had hit his helmet and another went through both his legs.
Listening to Doron for almost two hours I could not help but wonder to myself, “Am I witnessing some kind of oxymoron?” This hero, who recaptured an entire beach commanding three strangers. Who fearlessly defended Kfar Azza with an adrenaline-fueled tunnel vision. Who possessed the kind of tactical intelligence up to this point I’d only read about. This hero wept in front of a room full of strangers with steadfast integrity.
Doron did not weep because of the excruciating daily pain he endures from his injuries, multiple surgeries, or rigorous physical therapy. He did not cry for his lost family members and fellow commanders over the decades of his service. He did not cry because as soon as he returns to Israel his son will then join the army in wartime. Doron did not weep because of the barbarism he came face to face with on October 7th, 2023. No, Major Balahcan wept for the love of his country.
I think everyone in that room understood that this man believes he was put on this earth to defend the State of Israel. Deep in his ancestral makeup is a calling to keep the Jewish people alive. We the audience knew what a privilege it was to be in the presence of this humble hero, while also comprehending it was the last place he wanted to be. What was left unsaid was that he needed to be on the battlefield, and everyone could feel his anguish that he is not physically fit to finish his battle.
Whether Doron realizes it or not, when he shares his story from October 7th, he comes to heal. For Doron, every retelling is reliving. He thinks he is useless without his physical health. But his words hold just as much power, and the truth he shares is a vital service to his country.
Major Balahcan came to the United States to share his story freely, not to prove that October 7th happened — this was not that type of audience. We knew what these monsters did. But he needed us to fully grasp the enemy’s 10 years of preparation and planning that preceded the barbaric acts of October 7th.
After Doron was done speaking I waited in line to give him a hug. The embrace started off a bit awkward as he was bearing weight on his forearm crutches, but we came together as if he was my long-lost brother. Essentially, he is. This hug felt like hugging my best friend Sophie while I was in Israel last month, Sophie who spent October 7th trapped on Kibbutz Urim. Hugging someone after they had been in a terrorist attack and thanking G-d they are alive is something I never understood until this year. Truthfully, I never even thought of it.
Doron is not an oxymoron, he is just simply magnificent. Major Balahcan is over 4,000 years of Jewish exceptionalism, and it was an honor and a privilege to have the opportunity to be with him for an evening here in the Twin Cities. Thank you to the south metro public safety building and the Twin Cities Krav Maga community for hosting his talk.
Beautiful article. You captured the essence of Doron and the message.