Her perseverance in rehabilitating was attributed to the martial arts training provided by Sagi Dovev, a reservist in Sayeret Matkal, the most elite unit in the Israel Defense Forces. He trained Regev in Krav Maga at Sheba Medical Center months after Oct. 7.
Krav Maga is a form of Israeli self-defense that includes martial arts such as boxing, jujitsu, and wrestling.
Regev was shot by Hamas as she and others were fleeing the Nova Music Festival, and she was taken hostage by the terrorists into Gaza. Her injured leg was improperly reattached in Gaza.
At Sheba Medical Center outside Tel Aviv, Dovev visits patients who were affected by the Oct. 7 tragedy, when Hamas committed the largest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, in addition to raping women and taking people captive into Gaza. Dovev teaches Krav Maga to the patients.
Dovev told The Epoch Times in a recent interview that he doesn’t have a name for this initiative but is considering calling it “Fighting Back” or “Back to Fighting.”
“They are fighting back. They are fighting back from their injuries. They’re fighting back to go back to combat, to go back to their units,” he said.
Dovev noted the quick contrast that Regev felt between vacationing in Mexico earlier in October and being held hostage by terrorists less than a day later.
“Imagine this. One day, you are in Mexico drinking tequilas,” he said. “And after like 20 hours, you are in a tunnel in Gaza with shots in your leg. And then you come back to Israel, and you want to train, feel strong again.”
Dovev began using social media to post videos of this training “to share the stories of our heroes and show the world how resilient we are as a nation and [how resilient] our soldiers are and [to] inspire people and motivate people.”
Dovev doesn’t make any money from this endeavor as it’s purely volunteering with a staff of just a few people. However, he wants to expand the initiative with additional instructors and visit patients when they are rehabilitating after being released from the hospital.
“They go home, and suddenly they have no idea what to do,” he said. “Nobody’s treating them. They have to drive to the hospital, like, three times a week. It’s uncomfortable, and I’m thinking about going to their houses as well and continuing this.”
Dovev was born in 1977 at Sheba Medical Center, where he now gives new life to those who need it. He and his wife, Einav, have three children and live in Ganei Tikva, near Tel Aviv.
He was a member of Sayeret Matkal, essentially the equivalent of the Navy SEALs in the U.S. military, and retired from active duty in 2022 at the age of 45.
During his active military service, he was the head Krav Maga instructor for his fellow soldiers.
After leaving active duty in 2022, he founded a company called Special Operations Resilience Team to provide resilience workshops to organizations. This lasted for a year until Oct. 7, when he and his colleagues were called back into military service.
At that time, Dovev got word about soldiers getting critically wounded. He went to Sheba Medical Center and was by the patients’ side as they recovered. He split his time between training at the military base and volunteering at the hospital.
The training is customized for each patient. But the exercise does not begin until Dovev speaks with the patient, brings them lunch, and gets them to talk to him about how they feel.
Some of the wounded soldiers he’s trained have even gone back into combat, he said.
Dovev competed professionally, including during his active military service, in jujitsu, winning championships in Israel and Europe.
During a July visit to the United States, Dovev met with Republican senators—including Mississippi’s Cindy Hyde-Smith, Iowa’s Joni Ernst, and Florida’s Rick Scott—to raise awareness about his Krav Maga and resilience program.
Resilience has taken a significant meaning since Oct. 7, remarked Dovev.
“The meaning of resilience for us is being in tough situations, being in extreme situations, surviving and learning from them, growing from them, and coming out stronger for the next time,” he said.
Dovev went on to say that Israel has shown resilience since that tragic day and even beforehand.
“This is why we are the nation of resilience, because we had many hardships,” he said.
“We had many tough situations,” he continued, citing the pogroms, the Holocaust and Israel’s wars before Oct. 7.
“And we are resilient, and we will grow stronger even now.”
