IDF officer, First Lieutenant Yonatan Ben Hamou, spoke to Arutz Sheva – Israel National News from New Jersey, where he is undergoing medical treatment, about his experience joining Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at his speech at the Congress, in Washington DC.

Netanyahu presented Ben Hamou’s story, which received a standing ovation. Ben Hamou describes that it, “was so exciting. It was very, very amazing, because all the Senators and all the people in the Capitol stood up and clapped, because we are the heroes of Israel, of the army, and we were injured for a good mission. We were injured to save Israel, but not only for Israel, it's also for all the people in the world, also the people in America.”

“A lot of people came to say thank you,” says Ben Hamou, describing the excitement and embrace from all those present. “They said ‘thank you for your service and thank you for everything you did,’ because they know that we did everything to save Israel and to save the people in the world. They said thank you also because the mission of the soldiers in Israel is to beat Hamas, because Hamas is a terror organization. They want to kill everybody in Israel and to destroy all the Jews in the world.”

Ben Hamou says that he must explain to people about the great personal price he paid in this war and tells them that, “I lost my leg, but I am happy, because I did a mission for my country. If someone had asked me about the war, I would tell him that I was prepared to lose two legs, I would lose everything for my country, because this is my mission. I want to save my family and my country, because we don't have any country, other than Israel.”

Ben Hamou is currently in New Jersey going through medical treatment and is feeling the warm embrace of the Jewish community. “Many people in the community in Brooklyn and New Jersey invite me and help me with everything, because they know that I am a soldier, I was injured in Gaza, and I came to the US and I don't have anything in this country. They want to feel the soldier, to feel the war, so they invite me and help me with everything, says Ben Hamou.”

It is clear on Ben Hamou’s face, in his smile and apparently not only on his face, but on the faces of others as well, like in the rehabilitation department in the hospital, that his ultimate mission is to be happy and to make others happy and give them strength. Ben Hamou believes that he, “saw many injured soldiers in the hospital, in Tel Hashomer, and they and their families were feeling very bad and very sad. They needed a lot of help. So, I believe that God saved me for this mission, to help more people, to help more injured soldiers, to make them happy.”