The two Israelis who were injured in the New Orleans shooting and ramming attack last week are good friends in their 20s who served together in reserve duty after the October 7 assault in both Gaza and Lebanon.

Ironically, the reservists were spared from harm from Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists but were critically and seriously wounded by an ISIS-inspired attack while on a six-week trip to the US to recover from their reserve duty.

The two were injured by the car ramming rather than gunfire.  One victim is still in critical condition with head trauma and limb injuries and his life is still at risk. He underwent two emergency surgeries and will need further surgeries on his limbs when his condition stabilizes.

The second victim suffered serious internal injuries along with injuries to his limbs but his life is no longer in danger after undergoing two major surgeries. Baruch Hashem, he was removed from the ventilator on Friday morning and is now breathing on his own and communicating with his family members, who were flown to the US by Israel’s Foreign Ministry.

“That’s the tragic irony,” Israel’s Deputy Consul General to the U.S. Elad Shoshan told The New York Post from the New Orleans hospital where the two men are being treated.

“They left the terror of one country and never expected to be victims of it in another,” Shoshan said of the reservists, whose families asked not to disclose their names. “They came here to relax, to travel. That was interrupted in the most horrific way.”

Shoshan said that the critically injured victim tried to communicate with him before his first surgery. “He pressed my hand,” said the consul. “He’s in severe pain all over his body.”

“In an emotional moment, the other soldier recited the Jewish prayer called the Shema, appealing for his friend’s full recovery,” the Post wrote.

According to the report, the soldiers’ relatives are being supported by the local Jewish community, which numbers about 12,000.

“The road ahead will be challenging, but we remain optimistic and remain hopeful for their speedy recovery,” the father of the critically injured man told The Post.

Shoshan commented on the New Year’s Day anti-Israel rally in New York City the same day as the terror attack. “When people chant, ‘Globalize the intifada,’ it means importing violence from one region to another,” he said. “And that’s exactly what’s happening.”

“They want to bring violence and terror to America,” Shoshan noted, adding that Israel and the US are fighting the “same ideology, the same enemy” as on Oct. 7.

“Hamas acted like ISIS, that was its inspiration – just like this terrorist.”

“We said on October 8th: ‘The West is Next,’”  Shoshan asserted. “This isn’t the first time America has suffered an [Islamic] terror attack. It will continue unless it’s completely eradicated.”

“You don’t put out 50 percent of a fire. You need to fully stamp it out to make sure it never happens again.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)