Chen Tzion, an IDF soldier in the Kafir Brigade, was deployed to Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7th to battle the Hamas terrorists.

The sights he saw there were so harrowing that a few days later, he lost his sight – in what turned out to be a psychological response to the horrors he witnessed.

In an interview with Ynet, he said: “At first I saw blurry and then suddenly boom, just black. I didn’t understand what was happening to me until I thought about what I saw in Be’eri. I was very psychologically stressed and apparently, it affected me.”

“I went from doctor to doctor – each one thought that maybe something had happened, that something damaged my eyes. I underwent testing but everything was normal and then I saw the division’s psychiatrist.”

The psychiatrist hypothesized that the blindness was a psychological mechanism activated due to mental stress. Chen was sent home to get used to the new reality. “I always knew in my heart that my sight would return,” he said. “And indeed, five days, his sight returned. “It was fun to see again, it felt like being reborn.”

“When my vision returned I told the mental health officer that there’s no such thing as leaving in the middle of a war. I wasn’t released and I couldn’t fathom my friends fighting in Gaza and I’m sitting around outside.”

In the end, Chen entered Gaza with his friends. “When I entered Gaza, I only thought about one thing – the war. There’s always this fear that it will return but I also saw harrowing scenes in Gaza but I’m seeing perfectly and fighting well.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)