Civilian noticed soldier, bleeding and nearly unconscious, near Galilee highway junction.
By REBECCA ANNA STOILidf soldier 298 88 idf(photo credit: IDF)
As doctors fought to save a soldier suffering from a mysterious gunshot wound that caused massive damage to his left leg, police struggled to unravel the puzzle of how the young combat soldier came to be shot in the leg somewhere in the western Galilee.
In the late evening, a civilian noticed a soldier lying on the side of the street at Harshim Junction, between Karmiel and Beit Jann in the western Galilee.
The man called an ambulance, and before slipping out of consciousness due to massive blood loss, the soldier managed to say that he had been shot by the occupants of a vehicle who had given him a ride.
The soldier, a member of the Golani Infantry Brigade from Sajur, said the occupants of the vehicle had shot him, taken his service weapon, an M-16, and left him bleeding on the side of the street.
Although an MDA team rushed him to the Western Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya, the soldier's condition continued to decline.
Police said that the soldier had been shot in the left thigh, but that the bullet had "traveled" through the leg, causing massive internal bleeding. Even as doctors tried to stabilize him, the soldier lost consciousness and was put on a respirator.
Police had arrived at the hospital hoping to question the soldier and glean key details that could help them verify the story and continue the investigation.
But doctors said that under the current circumstances, such an interview would only be possible - optimistically speaking - in the future, if the soldier regained consciousness.
A senior police officer in the Galilee Subdistrict said police were investigating all possible directions in the case and were conducting searches throughout the area to try to find clues as to the circumstances surrounding the soldier's injury.
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