An Israeli actor who is dating one of the country’s most prominent television news journalists is being hailed as a hero after he was seriously wounded while fighting Hamas gunmen during an attempt to rescue trapped families near the Gaza Strip frontier over the weekend.
Yadin Gellman, 30, a theater and film actor who serves as a reservist in the Israeli military, underwent emergency surgery after sustaining gunshot wounds to his chest and hand during a gunfight with Hamas terrorists who infiltrated Be’eri, a kibbutz located two miles from the border with the Gaza Strip.
Gellman is dating Adva Dadon, a correspondent for N12 News, Israel’s most popular television news station, according to the Israeli news site Ynet.
“Thank you to everyone for your concern,” Dadon wrote on her Instagram account. “Please pray for his well-being as well as that of the other wounded, the missing, and the heroic fighters who are risking their lives.”
Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group that lords over the Gaza Strip, launched a surprise assault on early Saturday morning, which has so far claimed the lives of more than 800 Israelis.
Scores of other Israeli soldiers and civilians have been taken hostage by the group. The Israeli military has unleashed a ferocious response, bombarding the Gaza Strip with air strikes.
Dadon, an investigative journalist for N12 News, has been filing live, on-air reports from towns near the Gaza frontier which have been subjected to nearly non-stop rocket and missile bombardment from Hamas militants based in the Strip.
Be’eri, a kibbutz that numbers around 1,000 residents, was overrun with heavily armed Hamas terrorists who managed to break through the unguarded fence surrounding the border.
Several residents of the kibbutz were killed.
According to Hebrew-language media reports, Gellman was sent to Be’eri in order to root out Hamas gunmen who had infiltrated the kibbutz, leaving hundreds of families trapped in their homes.
Sources close to the actor told Israeli media outlets that Gellman and his fellow soldiers “saved many families.”
Gellman was rushed to a hospital after sustaining gunshot wounds to the chest, hand, and leg. He is reported to be in serious but stable condition.