Captain S., a helicopter pilot in Squadron 118, who brought home the released hostages, shared his feelings during the operation.
"A sense of pain, responsibility, and hope. Pain for the suffering they endured, responsibility to carry out the mission for them in the smoothest and best way possible, to help be part of their return back to their country and to life, and hope to see this amazing system take care of every detail and each hostage as if they were an entire world, and to understand that with this ability and in this spirit we are now succeeding. We hope and pray that we will be able to bring everyone back," said S.
"We are all here, and we will continued to be here together until we win, and until each and everyone returns home. Everyone in the helicopter witnessed the first meeting of the families with the released hostages. It is very hard to digest this situation and the tears just flowed on their own."
Captain S. described the events at the moment they arrived at the hospital, "When we landed, I had two very significant insights – the first was how many people were waiting for them. We saw many people from the helicopter, this was a whole country waiting for this moment. The second was a personal moment of closure. When I first evacuated casualties during the war, I brought them to Beilinson Hospital. Today, I landed in Beilinson for a similar but very different purpose, and I had the privilege of bringing home the hostages we have been waiting so long for. We are here till the last hostage comes home.”
