Twenty-year-old Lila Zucker, a fighter in the Home Front Command's search and rescue unit, has done a lot in the past five months since the outbreak of the war.
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She scanned buildings hit by missiles, was in Be'eri, fought in Gaza – the only soldier from her team to enter the strip – and now she is in the north of Israel and visits sites of fallen missiles.
Video: Hostages rescued by IDF in daring mission reunited with their families / Credit: IDF Spokesperson's Unit
It is clear to her that after military service, she will stay in Israel. Her older brother also served as a lone soldier and when the war broke out, he was drafted into the reserves.
Lila was born in Colorado, USA and her family moved to Israel when she was a child. They lived in Jerusalem, but after ten years, they left the country and returned to the US, to Arizona, and when she was 18, she decided to return to Israel.
For a year, she studied in a religious seminary in Kibbutz Ein Hanatziv in northern Israel, and there she began her enlistment process in the search and rescue unit of the Home Front Command.
During her training, Operation Protective Edge began, and the fighters were called to assist in real incidents. For example, they were called to the scene of a missile fall in Rehovot, in which one woman was killed and 13 others were injured.
"We needed to get a couple from the building. It was the first time I was in a real incident, and it was very meaningful. I learned a lot from it," Lila recounted.
On Oct. 7, Lila was at home in Jerusalem, in a special lone soldier's apartment.
"I woke up to a missile siren and saw my phone exploding with messages. Within 20 minutes, my commander came and picked me up to take me to the base. We arrived in the central area in vehicles with our equipment and maneuvered between the rockets. After about a week and a half, we received a mission to go and scan houses in Kibbutz Be'eri".
The horrific scenes in Be'eri left their mark on Lila, and she prefers not to talk too much about what she saw. When the IDF ground operation began in Gaza, the team served as a reserve force for a battalion that entered Gaza.
"I was in Khan Younis, and we were on standby to extract forces if there would be a collapse on soldiers from special units. In addition, we scanned routes and firing holes in Gaza".
As mentioned above, not the entire team entered Gaza. Lila was the only woman on her team to do so.
Lila is certain she will stay in Israel after she completes her service and hopes her parents will follow suit and move back to Israel as well.
"In the US, life was very easy," she explained. "I had friends and family, but something was missing. In Israel, I feel at home. I can't see myself living abroad, especially during war. I had no doubts about being a fighter, I told myself that if I enlisted, then to the end".
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