Star Israeli singer and “Fauda” actor Idan Amedi was seriously injured while fighting as an Israel Defense Forces reservist in the central Gaza Strip, and was airlifted to a hospital on Monday, where he was sedated and receiving treatment, Report informs via The Times of Israel.
Amedi’s father confirmed the injury, telling the Walla news site that his son’s life was no longer in danger.
The actor’s cousin Ayelet also posted an update on Instagram and asked the public to pray for his recovery.
Amedi, who is known for playing a soldier in an elite IDF unit that operates in Palestinian areas of the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip in the hit TV show “Fauda,” was serving as a real-life IDF reservist in the Combat Engineering Corps when he was injured. He was brought to Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan at about 4 p.m. on Monday and underwent urgent, serious and lengthy surgery, according to Hebrew media.
Shortly before he was wounded, Amedi was interviewed in Gaza by an Israeli television reporter, who he told he was “a little tired, but fine.”
“It’s weird to see you here [amid the fighting in Gaza]. You suddenly feel so clean to me, I don’t know how to act with this,” Amedi joked with the Channel 12 news correspondent.
Turning to the camera, Amedi then said, “we are working hard for everyone’s security. We really love you.”
He was also asked about the tunnels his unit was working to uncover.
“It’s crazy, what they built here,” he said. “The operation here is on a very central [Hamas tunnel] route. We found kilometers of tunnels here, weaponry, even special weaponry. We’ve been busy the past two days trying to destroy it.”
In a recent video Amedi recorded from Gaza, he said, “After 90 days of fighting, we are continuing to destroy the short-range missile sites, the launch sites, and the command facilities of the Hamas terrorist organization.”
He also urged a halt to internal dissent among Israelis: “I join my brother reservists in calling on the politicians, all the media outlets, and everyone: Whoever doesn’t have something good to say, simply shut your mouths. The people of Israel live.”
On October 12, amid a call-up of more than 300,000 reservists — days after Hamas-led terrorists in Gaza stormed the border with Israel, killing some 1,200 people and kidnapping another 240, mostly civilians — Amedi posted a video on X, formerly Twitter, wearing military fatigues and saying: “This isn’t a scene from Fauda, it’s real life.”