Bania Peretz: "The Paralysis Forced on Me by the Attack Will Not Defeat Me"

It happened at the beginning of May 2021. A severe terror attack occurred at Tapuach Junction, claiming the life of yeshiva student Yehuda Guetta, may his memory be blessed. His friend, Bania Peretz, was critically injured. "I had a bad feeling. I told him not to go there," recounts his father, Ofer Peretz, in a special conversation with 'Hidabroot.' "But the divine providence wanted otherwise," he accepts with emotion.

Bania, a student at the Itamar high yeshiva, also couldn't believe it would happen to him. "I indeed feared passing through Tapuach Junction, due to its unsympathetic past, but it seemed as if it didn’t truly affect our daily lives – having to go there not once," he tells 'Hidabroot.' Peretz planned to heed his father’s advice, but he just missed the bus and had no choice but to arrive at the volatile junction.

He remembers that day well. "On Sunday at 5:00 PM, I arrived at the junction on my way to the yeshiva. I met my friend Yehuda, may his memory be blessed. Beside us were other friends from the yeshiva. During the conversation, I suddenly heard a vehicle screech to a halt. I barely turned around when the shooting started. The terrorist shouted 'Allahu Akbar' and began shooting."

Yehuda Guetta fell to the ground first, passing away shortly after. "He studied with me in class, truly an outstanding boy," Peretz mourns him. "Yehuda was very dedicated, always fighting and never giving up even when it was tough." We will soon understand that this is the motto Bania takes with him in his difficult ordeal.

While his friend had no chance, Bania collapsed on the ground, severely injured but alive. He was hit by a bullet in the back that caused significant damage. "I heard ringing in my ears, and every minute there felt like an eternity. Luckily, rescue forces arrived quickly. I was rushed to the hospital as doctors informed me en route that a bullet hit my spine."

After the attack, security forces launched an extensive manhunt for the terrorist, apprehending him within the same week. Bania didn't attend the terrorist’s trial, who is now imprisoned in one of the security jails. "I was hospitalized for a long period and couldn’t attend the trial," he says.

When Life is Instantly Paralyzed

"I hear about the attack shortly after it happens and try to stay in control," says Bania's father. "I understood he was supposed to be in the area. When I heard about the attack, I immediately started calling him. I had an internal feeling he was involved in the event. Then the nightmare of my life began, I called him maybe thirty times, but there was no response. At one point, someone even hung up, and I realized Bania was involved in the attack. At some stage, someone from the yeshiva where he studied contacted me and said the harshest words I had ever heard: 'Bania is among the injured.'"

"I leave everything, contact my wife and race home, from where we head to the hospital together. I started sharing with her what was happening. I had already heard about the severe injury on the way, and I kept praying it wouldn’t be a head or back injury. Later, I would discover it was a back injury, and a severe one at that."

Ofer finds it hard to describe the difficult moment when he first met his son after the attack. "It was not a simple sight. I saw my son covered completely, only his eyes were visible. Then he turns to me and says: 'Dad, I can't move at all. I don't feel my body.' It was a very hard moment. I held back from breaking down and tried to calm him. 'It's okay, it's just the body's trauma,' I said, holding back tears. Afterward, I stepped outside for a moment, and a doctor approached me asking if I wanted an assessment. I told her, 'I understand, there’s no need.'"

"From there, Bania was moved to intensive care. Throughout the hospitalization, he asked when he could return to the yeshiva. He also asked when he could enlist in the commandos, which was also in the plan. He didn’t truly grasp what happened to him, and I in return tried to encourage him that, with Hashem's help, we would get out of this place and he would stand on his feet again."

Then came the difficult news: "At some point, the attending doctor summoned us to him and said: 'Take your son from here, because there is nothing to do with him. This is how he will remain, assuming he manages to survive. If not – you understand the implication yourself,' he added, clarifying that 'operating on him would not help at all.' I was very angry to hear that. I turned to him and said: 'You are a doctor, and above you is Hashem, and He will decide and determine. You indeed will not operate on Bania, and you will not come near him anymore. You cannot dictate fates.'"

Ofer left the doctor’s meeting pained yet filled with faith, deciding to turn to Rabbi Firer of 'Ezra L’Marpah.' "Rabbi Firer gave us the phone number of Prof. Eyal Yitzhak, and in a short time, he was already in Bania's hospital room. Yitzhak was optimistic and recommended operating on Bania. At that moment, I felt like the Shechinah was upon him while he spoke to us." However, even Prof. Yitzhak did not have too great news. "He warned us that Bania might face breathing difficulties. I asked him: 'Will it be possible to overcome this?' and he replied: 'If you give him strength, he will get through it.' What a human response," says Peretz, still impressed by the words.

Besides natural efforts, the Peretz family turns to more important spiritual paths. "We organized shifts of Psalms, consulted the book 'Igrot Kodesh' on whether to proceed with the operation, and directed an inquiry to Rabbi David Abuhatzeira, who responded: 'Bania is a miracle above nature.' After this, I had no more doubts. I returned to Prof. Yitzhak and told him I wanted him to operate today."

Bania's operation was successful. During the surgery, while Ofer waited anxiously outside, he received one of the most moving calls of his life: "It was one of my clients, an elderly woman about 75, whose father was a friend of Ben-Gurion. This self-declared atheist family, and what this woman told me was: 'Your case touched my heart, I’ve known Bania since he was a little boy. I decided to say Psalms for him, along with my family members.' The Jewish spark ignited following the case. After this call, my faith strengthened that everything would be alright, thanks to these merits of seemingly distant Jews, now performing such a Jewish act."

"Indeed, the morning after the surgery, the doctor summed up what happened, noting that everything went particularly well. He added and strengthened me, saying: 'I have given Bania the ability to move himself.'"

During this period, Bania also began to sense his situation. "It wasn’t easy to receive the news," he admits. "For a long time, I refused to even understand the new situation I had entered, but slowly, I processed the difficult news." Peretz mainly recalls the moments after the operation, the news that his breathing pathways and lungs were affected. "Since then, I’ve been in rehabilitation. Initially in the hospital, including respiratory rehabilitation in the intensive care room, and beyond. Today, I continue my rehabilitation efforts in private clinics."

You joined the company of the righteous: Yehuda Guetta, may his memory be blessed, was laid to rest

"The Doctor Did Not Believe I Would Survive or Hold My Head, Today I Do Both"

Like his father, faith is evident in Bania's words: "The doctor said there was nothing to do with me; during physiotherapy, they warned me there was a great doubt I could even hold my head, and today I look back and see how these two assessments collapsed under Hashem's decree. I can even hold my hands. The overall stability in other body parts improves day by day. Doctors are still not optimistic because they have no solution for rehabilitating a damaged spinal cord."

How do you cope in such a difficult situation?

"Faith is stronger than anything," he says. "Observing Torah and mitzvot keeps me well. By nature, I don't give up. There are many difficult moments, but there are also many light points, like family and friends who, from the first moment, don’t stop supporting and pushing. That gives me strength."

However, Bania acknowledges the situation is tough. "After I was injured, I essentially lost all ability to live a normal life. Suddenly, I couldn’t eat by myself, and initially, I couldn’t even breathe independently or do a long list of things everyone does daily without thinking. Today, every single thing I do is another step towards returning to being like a regular person."

Bania's daily schedule is intense: "After being discharged from the hospital, I enrolled in private rehabilitation clinics, and I travel daily for exercises, three to four hours in physiotherapy. Even at home, I train. Despite the paralysis, I strive to continue living like any normal person. Although I left the yeshiva out of constraint, I visit it occasionally. I also go out and explore, talk to friends, and don’t let it limit me."

"My dream is to walk again," he adds longingly.

Precisely for this reason, Bania's parents began exploring a groundbreaking surgery in which electric electrodes are attached to the area above the spine, which stimulate the spinal cord and transfer the power from it to the hands and legs. During their investigation, they met a woman who managed to walk again thanks to the surgery. "This was after nine years in a wheelchair," Bania emphasizes with hope. "We also believe it could make a significant change and allow me to walk."

To undergo the surgery, the Peretz family needs to raise approximately $200,000. The procedures after the surgery are also expensive and complex and are expected to cost $5,000 a day. For this purpose, the family launched a crowdfunding campaign titled "Helping Bania Walk Again," intending to raise the full amount needed to give them back the child whose life paused in a single day.

Meanwhile, a particularly moving event recently occurred when Bania ascended for the first time since the injury to the Tomb of Yosef HaTzadik. There, alongside thousands, including the head of the high yeshiva of Itamar, Rabbi Yehoshua Van Dyk, Bania captured all the attention as the masses witnessed the medical miracle as he managed to move his hands.

In his words at the tomb, Bania referred to the story of Yosef HaTzadik, which he says inspires him: "Even Yosef HaTzadik, who was imprisoned in Egypt, never stopped believing. I came here, to draw strength from Yosef HaTzadik, to believe and never give up, and with God’s help, to stand on my feet again." In our conversation, he recounts that he often thinks about Yosef HaTzadik about what he went through until it became clear that everything was for the best.

Bania's father was also very moved during their stay at the tomb: "I feel like I’m in a dream coming true. I go back many years when Bania was little, sitting with a large kippah at the Shabbat table, and we belting out the song 'And I Gave You Shechem One on Your Brothers.' I always dreamed of reaching Yosef's Tomb with everyone together and belting it out, shouting it to the heavens because here is the people of Israel. Yaakov asked Yosef 'And he carried me from the land of Egypt,' take me out of the constraints. This is Bania’s demand of Yosef HaTzadik, take me out of the constraints, from the restrictions I am in now." Ofer adds that the ascent to the tomb also served as a message to the government to act further for the settlement of the land and to commemorate Yehuda Guetta, may his memory be blessed, who was murdered in the attack.

Finally, Ofer Peretz tells us: "We want Bania to be, with God’s help, a role model for all of Israel, for the path he took until he defeated terror." Bania adds and calls everyone not to give up: "Even if it's hard and you don't see the light at the end of the tunnel – you must fight and never give up. Because still, above us lies the Shechinah, and Hashem is the one pushing us forward."