A Bedouin physician who works on the staff of Ashkelon’s Barzilai Medical Center was accosted by a Hamas terrorist 17 minutes before thousands of others invaded the south on October 7. Dr. Tarek Abu Arar of the village of Arara near Dimona who has for the last four years been a volunteer with United Hatzalah (UH), got a call from his wife at 6.13 a.m. who said that there was a war. He returned to their home to take his UH ceramic vest and helmet.
On the way to his hospital, he saw a man lying in the road and thought at first that he had been involved in a car accident. Abu Arar naturally rushed in his direction to help him.
“Unaware of the horrible events that were unfolding, the doctor was shot at in the chest by the man who was, in fact, a terrorist – but his life saved by the protective equipment he received from the voluntary emergency medical technician and paramedic organization.
“I started to pray to Allah. Then 12 more terrorists came out from the bushes, and Abu Arar realized the danger. With machine guns, they took him to an intersection and demanded answers in Arabic to a number of questions that Muslims should be able to answer, like who were the wives of the Prophet Muhammed. I didn’t remember. He said to quote something from the Koran,” he recalled in a conversation with UH found and president Eli Beer.
Three or four of the terrorists beat him and boasted: “Now we have a captive to protect us from the Israelis bombing from the sky.” They used me as a human shield. Without the vest, I would be dead. Then they shot for an hour and a half at every car that passed. They murdered so many people – men, women, children – everyone. I was a doctor but I couldn’t help them. Finally, Israeli special forces arrived and rescued me.”
A proud Israeli Bedouin
Beer hugged the Bedouin doctor and said: “He shows the spirit of a proud Israeli Bedouin physician. He identifies as a Muslim but takes pride in the country he calls home. His life was saved by the very bulletproof vest generously given to him by United Hatzalah.”
The traumatized Abu Arar was rushed to the hospital by a UH volunteer, Moshe Weizmann. Later, the two UH volunteers met, recognized each other and hugged.
Beer noted that sadly, a year ago, a UH volunteer from Dimona who was named Yoel Suissa was killed in a road accident on his ambucycle. “Yoel looked down on you from above; he kept his eye on you and protected you with that vest.”
Asking how a dedicated Muslim doctor like him felt about the vicious murderers in Hamas, Abu Arar told Beer that “this is not Islam. The Prophet Muhammed said it was forbidden to murder anyone, to cut off the heads of children. A real Muslim must never do these things.”
The English-language video can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt1c7D5RtFI