Idan Amedi Reunites with Combat Medic Who Saved His Life in Gaza

What began as a routine performance at the Hutzot Hayotzer music festival turned into an emotional moment of gratitude, as singer and actor Idan Amedi reunited with the combat medic who saved his life on the battlefield.

Midway through his set on Saturday night, Amedi was alerted by an audience member that Tuvia Book, the reservist doctor who treated him after he was gravely wounded in Gaza last year, was standing in the crowd. Without hesitation, Amedi left the stage and rushed to the barricade.

“I love you,” Amedi told Book, embracing him as the audience erupted in applause. “I will never be able to thank you enough. Let me just give you a hug.” The singer then asked the festival’s crew to project Book’s face onto the big screens behind him.

From battlefield to festival ground

Amedi, star of the Netflix hit Fauda, was critically injured in January 2024 during reserve duty with the Combat Engineering Corps. An explosion, later determined to have been caused by Israeli troops, killed six soldiers and left several others, including Idan Amedi, seriously wounded.

Book, the oldest combat medic serving in Gaza at the time, was part of the team that resuscitated him. “When we reached him, he was unresponsive and not breathing,” Book later recalled. His team tagged the singer’s arm with a medical bracelet that read simply: ‘anonymous, 27 years old.’

Speaking to Channel 12, Book described his shock at the reunion.

“There were thousands of soldiers there, we were all enjoying ourselves, and then suddenly Idan Amedi said, ‘I hear there’s a medic here who treated me,’ and I thought, ‘Whoa, is that me?’ I raised my hand and he said, ‘I’m coming!’ and ran to me.”

“A whole life in one year”

Since his injury, Amedi has spoken openly about the trauma and recovery process. Returning to the stage in February, he told fans:

“You ask what you go through in a year like that? You die and then suddenly you are given life again.” He revealed that shrapnel had missed his spinal cord by just two millimeters.

Now 37, Amedi has embraced a full comeback, selling more than 60,000 tickets for a nine-show national tour. But he also announced he would not return for season five of Fauda, citing the need to focus on his health.

Shared resilience

For Book, who serves in the IDF’s Palmar Asaf medical extraction unit and is also a longtime Jewish educator, the reunion underscored a deeper truth. Reflecting on his service, he once wrote:

“Once we put on the IDF uniform we are here for one purpose, and one purpose alone: to defend our homeland from the scourge of Hamas. We are all focused on what we have in common, and not what divides us.”

On Saturday night in Jerusalem, that common purpose was captured in a single embrace: a soldier-turned-star thanking the medic who gave him back his life.