During the President's Award for Excellent Soldiers ceremony in Jerusalem on Wednesday, an open discussion took place between captivity survivor Alon Ohel and Dvir Boublil, a soldier in the 51st Battalion of the Golani Brigade who was critically wounded on October 7th.

The meeting, moderated by Hadar Marks and Michael Aloni, dealt with the two men's personal journey, from the difficult crisis to the rehabilitation process.

Alon Ohel described the two years of captivity: "I was 50 meters underground, legs bound, I looked literally like a dead body, I could only dream about these moments, to sit here on Independence Day and play for you."

He shared that to cope with the difficult reality in captivity, he would imagine himself on stage, "to pass the time, I would imagine myself sitting on a stage just like this one singing, so that I could maybe get some optimism that I would return home. And behold, it's happening, I am here on this stage, it's unfathomable."

Ohel said that his return to life was accompanied by the understanding of the public effort to bring him home, and added, "I was not exposed to anything, and I didn't know what was happening here, and to return and discover that they didn't stop fighting for me, it's just crazy. Reservists, those people with children, leave them at home and go out to fight for me to come home. So now to sit here and play is closure for me."

Boublil shared the pain of loss he experienced after his injury: "I woke up to learn that nine friends fell in battle without me knowing, including the guy whom I treated under fire." With this, he stressed the ongoing rehabilitation process, and said, "In the end, thank G-d, I recovered, and I am still rehabilitating, I managed to get back to playing, still not like in the past, I intentionally say 'still,' because it will be like in the past."

He also spoke of the soldiers' sense of responsibility and said of the injury: "This situation was forced on me. You're wounded, you don't choose to get wounded or to be an Israeli hero, and in the end, I also learned that there are 251 hostages, which was a number that was not correct, and it is very disappointing. You are not to blame, but you feel like you have failed. You did not defend the country, and the people whom you do not even know but love because they are part of the nation."