With Times of Israel – In a scene that could have been scripted for the silver screen, Israeli singer and Fauda actor Idan Amedi created one of the most emotionally charged moments in recent concert history when he reunited on stage with one of the combat medics who saved his life in Gaza.
The extraordinary encounter unfolded at Jerusalem’s Sultan’s Pool amphitheatre during Amedi’s performance at the annual Hutzot Hayotzer festival, which drew thousands of Israelis including IDF reserve soldiers who had received tickets through the army.
Halfway through his set, Amedi made an unexpected announcement.
“He basically said, I heard that one of the medics who saved my life is actually in the audience right now. Could he please identify himself if he’s here?” Tuvia Book told The AJN in an exclusive interview. Book was part of the medical extraction team that saved Amedi’s life.
“I suddenly realised he must be talking about me. I had no inkling that was about to happen. So I put up my hand, and he said, ‘wait, wait, wait, I’m coming’. And he ran off the stage and came and gave me a massive bear hug.”
Amedi then told the audience who Book was and why it was so special that he was there.
“This is Tuvia. Because of Tuvia and people like him, I’m here today. I can perform,” Book recalled. “And everyone started going crazy, and he was whipping up the audience into a frenzy. I found myself in the centre of a storm of love and affection, and it was quite overwhelming.”
Amedi, who is best known for his role on the hit TV show Fauda, was seriously injured by an explosion in January 2024 while serving in the Combat Engineering Corps reserves in Gaza. Six soldiers were killed and several others were injured in the incident, which was apparently accidentally caused by troops.
Book, who is the oldest combat medic serving in the Gaza Strip amid Israel’s war with Hamas, said when his combat medical extraction unit Palmar Asaf arrived on the scene it was a disaster.
“There [were] unfortunately dead soldiers. There [were] wounded soldiers,” Book told The AJN. “One of them was just lying strewn on the ground, totally unresponsive, unconscious, not breathing, absolutely blackened shirt ripped open, dog tags off. We didn’t know who it was, but it was an IDF soldier, a holy soldier.”
No one had any idea who the soldier was, placing a medical bracelet on him that read ‘anonymous, 27 years old’.
The medical team’s expertise proved crucial. “One of our doctors, she was feeling his pulse, and she actually felt there was a slight pulse. And our entire team just jumped on top and started working to attempt to try and resuscitate and revive the soldier.” The unit, composed of doctors, paramedics, combat medics, and combat troops, worked tirelessly to stabilise the critically injured soldier.
“We gave him real blood, we unblocked his airway, and it’s only three helicopters later was he stable enough to evacuate, still unconscious and we were manually breathing him,” Book explained. “Only the next day we realised who he actually was, who we’d helped save. But for us, it was another day in the quote, unquote office.”
Amedi made his full return to the stage with a sold-out show in Jerusalem this past February, more than a year after he was injured, during which he spoke in depth about his experience.
He told the crowd that he felt like he had lived “a whole life in one year.”
“You ask what you go through in a year like that? You die and then suddenly you are given life again,” Amedi said at the time.
He told the crowd that the shrapnel that had pierced his body “missed the spinal cord by two millimetres.”
Book explained that the reason so many soldiers have been saved in this particular war is because the IDF, in particular the medical extraction unit, has learned a lot from past experiences.
“[We] have incredibly professional medical staff. We also have amazing technology, and most importantly, the speed of evacuation is what saves lives,” he said.
Book said the reunion was incredibly emotional, not just for him but for his entire unit and indeed the entire IDF, particularly because it has led to an influx of appreciation and recognition for what soldiers go through on a daily basis.
The story has resonated across Israel, with Book appearing on television stations nationwide as the public celebrates these everyday heroes. He told The AJN he has also been stopped on the street by people saying they saw him on the news or at the concert.
“It is quite overwhelming, but also vindicating for the hard work that we do, rescuing and saving our holy soldiers.”
For Book and his fellow soldiers, the work continues.
“If everyone said let someone else do it, we would not have a state. We would not have an army,” Book said.
“This is a holy cause and a war that we didn’t start, but a war that we do need to end. And me and my fellow soldiers, men and women in the unit, we’re in it until the completion. Until the hostages are returned, and until Hamas is absolutely wiped out.”
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