Divine Protection in Gaza: A Soldier’s Powerful Story

It was a regular morning of movement in and out of Gaza during Operation Protective Edge. Shimon Lugasi, a 22-year-old soldier from Netanya serving in a support unit of the armored corps, was returning from an operation. His group was on foot, walking toward Israeli territory.

About 100 meters from the security fence, the soldiers stopped in a small valley to rest and wait for the armored vehicles to pick them up. “We were around forty guys sitting there,” Shimon recalls. “The commanders unloaded our weapons, and we tried to catch our breath.”

Just before the vehicles arrived, Shimon noticed a friend walking around without his vest. On top of their bulletproof vests, they wore another protective layer that was only to be removed with permission. “I asked him if he had permission. He said yes,” Shimon says.

So Shimon removed his own vest too. As he placed it on the ramp of the armored vehicle and bent down to close the clips, everything changed.

Suddenly, there was a deafening explosion, followed by two more. “I didn’t even realize what had happened. I was still bent over, trying to fasten the clips,” he says. “I lay there on the ground for what felt like forever, barely able to see or breathe. And then I heard the screaming.”

The explosions were mortar shells that had landed right where the group had been waiting. One shell hit the entrance gate, the second hit a tank, and the third struck the center of the soldiers’ gathering. Five of Shimon’s friends were killed instantly. Dozens of others were wounded, some losing limbs. Shimon was not harmed at all.

Only later did he realize the full extent of the miracle.

The mortar had landed just five meters from him and pierced the side of the vehicle where he had been standing. Everyone nearby was either killed or badly hurt. As soon as he could, Shimon jumped into action. “I did what I was trained to do. I ran to a safe spot, got my weapon ready, and scanned for threats. When I saw it was clear, I began helping the injured and evacuating the fallen.”

But something deeper had also happened.

A few days later, Shimon returned home. He hadn’t yet told his parents about the incident. But as soon as he walked through the door, he noticed his father was visibly shaken. “What’s wrong, Abba?” he asked.

His father shared an emotional story. “Savta had a dream,” he said. “In it, your grandfather, the one you’re named after came to her and said, ‘Shimon, Avni, bend down. I want to bless you.’”

The timing stunned him.

“I was speechless,” Shimon says. “That exact moment of bending down was when the shell exploded above me. The blessing in the dream saved my life.”

Shimon had grown up in a traditional home and attended religious schools, but in his last year of high school, he had drifted away. During army service, however, he began to reconnect. “Being far from home and seeing the horrors in Gaza pushed me to think more deeply,” he shares.

But the attack during Operation Protective Edge was the moment everything changed. “After that, I was no longer the same person,” he says.

The day after his discharge from the army, Shimon had already made up his mind. He went straight to a yeshiva in Jerusalem. “I realized I was given a second chance at life. Every moment is a gift. And a life without Hashem and without knowing He’s watching over you? That’s not really living.”