Roman Ratner

In memory of a friend who has been killed in Lebanon

Roman Ratner,

Published on "Cursor-info", on September 10th, 2006

On September 10, Doctor should have been 36. On September 4, thirty days had passed since his death. The military doctor captain Igor Rotshtein was killed on the night between 3-4 of August in East Sector of Southern Lebanon. It was fourth military doctor of IDF that was killed in the whole history of Arab - Israeli wars.

We have met in Gaza in 2003 when we, volunteers from "Battalion Alia", called up for military service to conduct an anti-sniper war in a southern part of sector. In a division ridiculous rumours were afloat about "the Chechen snipers". Many Russian-speaking soldiers and officers use to come along to meet us. To Igor we came ourselves - we needed to register in a medical unit. Since then always when we had a free minute, we went to the Doctor to talk "about a life".

When The Second Lebanese had begun, Igor called me and asked: "Commander, when do we go to war?" It was a sincere impulse, without peacock. I promised him we would come into Lebanon together.

I kept half of my promise. At 17.00 on August 3, I have received the information, that Doctor will be transferred into our sniper division tomorrow. Immediately I started to call. Phone was silent, and it was strange. By that time Igor Rotshtein has voluntarily signed up to carry out duties of a regiment doctor in the "Golani" brigade.

It was obvious to me, that battalion’s doctor should not have left the base further than the border of Lebanon. Inside he has simply nothing to do, in fact first aid and evacuation of wounded men up to first aid unit should be carried out by paramedics and hospital attendants every platoon has.

After a number of unsuccessful attempts to reach Doctor on a phone I had sent him an SMS, and he unexpectedly called back. Igor was in Lebanon, and they, as he said, were to go out shortly.

At will of destiny I had to become the last person who ever spoke with the Doctor on the phone.

Late at night I got a call from one of brigade’s HR officers who told me there was a primary information that Igor was killed. Four hours later we went to identification.

This war will remain for ever in my memory as a mute question in dead eyes of the Doctor: "Why?"

I would like to ask this question those who had sent Igor together with infantry company with the task of storming a strengthened house in South Lebanon village.

According to participants of this operation, commanders have decided to operate the same way they did in Gaza: approached the door, knocked, the door did not open, then tried a sledgehammer - did not work. It was all happening at night, on Lebanese territory, in a state of no front line, when enemy could have turned up any moment from anywhere. One may ask, if they decided to bring a sledgehammer, why did not they bring the sapper who could have got a steel door blown up in a few minutes and enable task force to act?

And, actually, what was all this operation for, anyway? It is obvious, that after our fighters "in a silent way", with a sledgehammer, tried to seize the house, it was impossible and fatally dangerous to use it as a stronghold. Why didn’t they blow the house up? Did our tanks run out of shells and fighter jets of missiles? I assure you - there were ammunition galore. Simply one "large military mind", who perfected his art of war in Judea, Samaria or in Gaza, decided that the war against "Hesbolah" should be conducted the same way it is in Territories.

It is perfectly clear, that in Lebanon such tactics won't do any good. The opponent is not the same. "Hesbolah" waged guerrilla war duly, and naturally, insurgents could not miss such luck. Doctor’s division was attacked by terrorists from a short distance (where was a fighting peripheral spreading is not clear). Night fight started in which attackers had the main advantage - suddenness.

Almost at once there were wounded men. Doctor rushed to help and was killed. Judging by the nature of wound, which consequences we witnessed in the center of identification, most likely, he did not have time to understand he was dying.

Today, thirty days after his death, we cannot understand, what did the military doctor do in fighting forces. In fact, all he could have been possibly doing there was not more than paramedics or hospital attendants normally do during a fight, anyway.

Well-known, that to render medical assistance to a wounded man he should be taken away from a zone of fire - this is a job of hospital attendants - and evacuated in a shortest term to medical zone.

From papers and stories of eyewitnesses, in this war there were many wounded men that could not be evacuated within seven-ten hours. Why?

How could that happen, that army was not ready to evacuate wounded under fire? In fact, the country is at war for almost sixty years, and the medical service should be prepared for any course of events. Turned out it was not.

Instead of properly organizing evacuation of wounded men, commanders from medicine have decided to send doctors with divisions. Probably, they assumed the presence of a doctor on the battlefield can compensate for the absence of a possibility to evacuate wounded men in time?

Unfortunately, they were mistaken. In opinion of military doctors - Igor's friends, e.r. actions (which is to be done first of all) on a battlefield are possible, but for that at night a light is required. Usual electric light.

How is it possible to light up an electric torch under fire? Has anybody from medical staff thought about it? No. Neither did infantry commanders, who failed on a planning stage to provide for a first aid unit where hospital attendants could drag the wounded men to and where the doctor, without absolute probability of being killed, could turn on a torch and rescue wounded.

We don’t have answers to these questions. Or rather, we don’t have answers just yet. But we do hope that the state commission, which will not just search for a scapegoat, will be created, and will understand how did the army happen to come to a condition it is in today. I think that the reasons of Doctor’s death should be thoroughly investigated and lessons learned.

Once in 2004 Doctor went with us behind the "green line" - boundless orange gardens in the east of Gaza, where we suited ambushes against terrorists. Every time we had to prove to our bosses we needed him, and if required, the Doctor would fight as a usual infantry soldier. Never have we regretted that he came with us.

Doctor was a real Soldier and died like a real Soldier.

May his memory be eternal!