Col. Golan Vach seriously injured in Gaza tunnel collapse

IDF Col. (Res.) Golan Vach was seriously injured Tuesday morning when a tunnel shaft collapsed on him in central Gaza.

Col. Vach was rescued from the tunnel and taken to the hospital in stable condition. His family was informed of his injuries.

Col. Vach served as commander of search and rescue operations in southern Israel following the Hamas massacre of October 7. He also commanded multiple search and rescue units abroad in recent years, including the IDF search and rescue unit in Turkey following the massive earthquake of February 2023 and the Israeli search and rescue unit in Miami following the 2021 Surfside building collapse.

He fought in Gaza alongside IDF soldier Yossi Hershkovitz, who fell in battle. Vach told them that during the activity in the Gaza strip, Hershkowitz taught him a new melody he composed.

"It was total darkness and suddenly someone was in the living room near us and I hear him humming," Vach recalled. "I called out, 'Yoss?' and he replied, 'Yes.' I asked him what he was humming and he said it was a song that he used to sing to himself. I asked him if he had written the tune and he said yes. I asked him when and he replied, 'When we started walking.'"

"Since then I have been humming it to myself. I asked him to sing it. This was a very special moment when we were sitting there. It was total darkness, and he was sitting next to me and singing me a song. He sang it once and I asked him to sing it again.

"He sang it again and I started humming along, and … that’s it," Vach said.