Two soldiers who were badly wounded during the Cast Lead operation have made significant progress towards recovery, doctors said Monday. One was released Monday to the Beit Levinstein Rehabilitation Hospital, and the other is expected to be transferred to a rehabilitative unit on Tuesday.
One of the soldiers, Paratroopers Brigade Lieutenant Aharon Karov, captured national interest with his story. Karov married his new wife, Tzvia, just one day before Cast Lead began. He joined his troops on the battlefield and was critically wounded by an explosion in a booby-trapped building.
Aharon's father, a well-known rabbi, said Monday that his son recently managed to take several steps, and can now see again after suffering eye injuries in the blast.
The second soldier, who fought in the Golani Brigade, was badly wounded in the first night of fighting. He suffered serious injuries to his head and right arm.
The soldier was airlifted to Soroka Hospital in Be'er Sheva, where he underwent head surgery twice. After two weeks in which he was comatose and on a ventilator, the young man regained consciousness and began breathing independently.
A third soldier, who was seriously wounded last week in a bombing near Kissufim, has also regained consciousness and is breathing, doctors reported. The bombing, which killed one soldier, took place shortly after Cast Lead ended.