Forged in fire: How 3 IDF heroines found an unlikely sisterhood on the battlefield

“Your Heart Keeps Pounding, But You Have to Keep Going”

That horrific morning, as Hamas monsters unleashed their assault, the three women tapped into skills honed during their service to survive and save others. “One thing I remembered from navigation training was to always rely on the sun,” Naomi recalls. “In the middle of a field turned war zone, I pointed my friends east—‘Run toward the sunrise; even if we reach the Dead Sea, just get us to safety.’”

Shani, confronted by the carnage along her escape route, felt the weight of the moment: “You can’t prepare for being in the danger zone yourself. I realized I had to pull it together and act. Amid the chaos, another paramedic friend and I provided first aid to the wounded.” Nastia, too, relives those surreal minutes: “While fleeing, I replayed training scenarios in my head, planning every step, anticipating an ambush from another direction. I’d trained for this since the day I enlisted. If I’d only guessed I had these traits—staying calm under pressure, functioning at my peak in a crisis—now I know for sure.”

“Every possible scenario ran through my mind—where they might come from next,” Nastia continues, describing the scene. “I mapped out a route, kept driving without stopping, took sharp turns, weaved between cars. A bullet grazed my right shoulder, a minor wound—but none of that mattered then. All I cared about was getting out and saving everyone with me.”

Bullets whistled overhead, terrorist vehicles loomed in the distance, and hours spent hiding in thorny bushes tested their resolve. Yet they remained warriors—leading friends and strangers alike to safety amid the pandemonium. “Your heart doesn’t stop racing,” they say, “but you have to keep functioning.”

“Healing Means Protecting Home”

Days later, they reported to the 926th Battalion, a unit tasked with rescue missions across Israel. “People looking from the outside always think, ‘Why didn’t you stay home to deal with the trauma?’” Shani shares. “But we knew from the start that part of healing is defending our home. It reinforces that we didn’t go through this for nothing. We’re here for a reason—to stand strong and ensure no disaster like this happens again.”

Our conversation takes place just as the battalion’s soldiers wrap up their second frontline deployment of the war, this time in the West Bank. Naomi, who was still in active duty on October 7, has since joined the reserves, cementing the trio’s remarkable connection.

When they learned other women in their unit shared similar experiences, they sought each other out. Long conversations followed—painful memories spilled out, and a bond formed that no outsider could fully grasp. “You’d think we’d known each other for years,” they say. “Our souls linked quickly. When someone next to you understands everything you’re feeling with just a glance, it changes everything. You feel stronger.”

A Bond Beyond Words

Amid the pain, there is also laughter—inside jokes only they catch, a lightness born of shared survival. What stands out is strength. They smile together, ache for each other’s losses, and marvel at new details they uncover about one another. In those moments, their meaning becomes clear: the true sisterhood of warriors they spoke of at the outset.

They survived the Nova massacre apart, strangers in a nightmare. In the reserves, they found each other, their stories stitching together a tapestry of courage and resilience. For Nastia, Shani, and Naomi, this is more than survival—it’s a testament to their unbreakable spirit as women who fight, heal, and stand as one.