Ezequiel Trzcina (Buenos Aires, 1996) is one of the most curious individuals I've met in the month I've been living in Israel. He has an impressive introduction. "He's an Argentine soldier who was injured in Gaza," they told me. During the war, while covering his comrades' backs outside a hospital, something exploded, and he received shrapnel in the arm.
How did an Argentine guy decide to have this life? Leaving the comfort zone, crossing the Atlantic, immigrating to Israel, becoming a soldier, and fighting in a war that his children will study. Understanding it is probably an easy exercise for Jews and a challenge for non-Jews. Ezequiel explained this decision and much more to me in his living room in Yalon, south of Tel Aviv.
Gabriel: How is your arm?
Ezequiel: Good. It's healing well. But there are many things I still can't do. I just lifted the tea cup, and that's new. I'm progressing little by little. But it still hurts quite a bit. It's an internal pain. But all in all, the surgery went well. It's been a month and a week, so it's quite good.
G: Yes, compared to your photo in the hospital, I see it's healing well.
E: I always healed well. It looks very good. Three days after the operation, all the doctors who operated on me came to visit, about six of them. And one explained that he was responsible for opening and closing me. And he said, "Kol Hakavod, I congratulate myself. Look how well it turned out!" Fortunately, it turned out well, it's small.
Are you undergoing any rehabilitation?
First, I had three weeks of rehabilitation in the hospital where I was staying. Every day, I had occupational therapy and physiotherapy. Now I continue with that, but I'm already sleeping at home. I go to the hospital three or four times, continuing the treatment.
How is your life now? I understand you're not working.
No. I finished the army four months before October 7. And, like many Israelis after finishing the army, I went to travel a bit. I visited Madrid and Barcelona and rented a car to travel the south of Spain. Then I returned to Israel and started looking for a job. I was very active in the search, but then the war started. So now I'm unemployed but recovering.
And emotionally, how are you? Are you resting, or are you mentally in Gaza?
I have my days. I've cried a lot. In the hospital, maybe less because there were people around me all the time, there were distractions. People who came to visit me, famous singers, football players. But now that I left the hospital ten days ago, I have more alone moments and other difficulties. Maybe very small things.
I don't cry over a small thing, but for everything I have behind me. But at the same time, I'm very happy to be healthy. It was a very small wound compared to what many comrades had in the hospital. I have a bit of helplessness because I want to be there fighting again, with my friends, my brothers. And I hope it will be in a couple of months.
Would you go back? Despite everything?
Yes.
You're going to a psychologist. Is this the first time you've gone? Or, as a good Argentine, had you gone in the past?
Like a good Argentine, I've been going since I was little. I went before going to the army, but I couldn't continue during the army. Once I finished the army, I went back to him before the war. During the war, I couldn't talk to him for two months. And now, I've resumed sessions with him. But it's not something new for me.
Can you remember how you experienced October 7?
At six in the morning, the alarms went off. Alarms are not something out of the ordinary for Israel. We're constantly being targeted with missiles. But I started seeing videos that there were terrorists inside Israel. That's when I sent a message to my commander at 8:40 am, telling him, "Ani muhan," "I'm ready."
Around noon, I got on the bus to go to the base. There was a bus that picked up all my comrades. They were still doing the army; I finished before them. And there I got on the bus with them, voluntarily. Like me, there were thousands and thousands of soldiers across the country. Who went to the nearest recruitment center and said they wanted to be called to be reservists.
And how did you tell your loved ones that you were going to war?
I softened it little by little. I lied. If for some reason they didn't give me weapons or didn't want me again (because I hadn't been a soldier for four months), I was willing to do logistical work. But after a day, they gave me the weapon and told me I was ready. That I could join my battalion again.
So, as I had this idea that I could do logistical work, I told my family that for the moment, that's what I was doing. So, a couple of days. Until once we did a video call, and they saw me with the weapon. And they said, "Hey, do you already have a weapon?" And I said yes [laughs].
I was always telling them everything softer than it was. At one point, they told us that we were already entering Gaza, and I never told that to my parents. I just told them that they were going to give us more sensitive information - which is true - that they were taking our phones - that's also true - so I just didn't tell them that I was going into Gaza.
Returning to October 7, the day ends, October 8 comes, and it's your birthday. How did you spend it?
I arrived at the base on October 7, with all my comrades, and there was a lot of sadness, a lot of misunderstanding.
A lot of silence?
In the base, not so much. I guess there was more silence among society, on the streets. But in the bases, I think we were more expectant about what was going to happen, where they were going to send us, whether we were going to Gaza already. So, we were preparing everything, preparing ourselves. I went to sleep before midnight.
When I woke up on October 8, there was no mood to ask anyone for a cake. So, they didn't sing me happy birthday or anything. I remember I posted a story on Instagram, at the base. I wrote something like "it's not the place where I'd like to spend my birthday, but at the same time, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else." There were no celebrations, but it's okay. It was a normal training day.
Do you consider yourself a good soldier?
I'm a good soldier. My commanders always had a lot of confidence in me, and they know that if they ask me for something, I'll carry it out in the best possible way. In fact, the one who had to sign for me to return to the battalion was a high-ranking commander who knew me.
At that moment, he wasn't at the base; he was touring the kibbutzim. He had a moment to talk, and he said he would sign the papers at another time, but that they should let me in already. They have confidence in me, they know I'm a good soldier. Now less, but before the war, I was in very good physical condition. I'm a good soldier, and one more always helps.
Did you do parachuting in that first stage?
No, the unit is called paratroopers [tzanjanim], but no. We did the parachute course, but I only jumped twice. It's true that the first time you jump without an instructor, which is scary. But the name is a tradition of the unit.
After the 1973 war, parachuting is no longer used in wars. The unit kept the name, but it's an infantry unit. It goes by land. It's a common ground unit. A good combat unit.
You went to the West Bank and entered terrorists' houses to take them. How was that experience?
There was a little fear. But there are many instructions on how to walk, where to aim. You have to keep looking around all the time to make sure there are no enemies, not to step on a bomb. So, you're very alert. I was very awake, very attentive, trying to move as professionally as possible. To be the best soldier possible.
And the feeling of having a terrorist in front of you...? Few people are aware of what that means.
When you enter their house, you see them, and they are ordinary people. But of course, they hide a weapon in their 7-year-old daughter's bedroom. These are people who don't care about their own family.
Did you see those weapons?
Yes, I saw it with my own eyes.
A question I've been asking all my interviewees. In Spain, many people repeat the cliché that Israel "doesn't exist," that it is a "colonizing" country, that all its citizens are "colonizers"... as an Argentine who came to live here, what do you tell them?
Don't join the trend. Read, learn history. If I ask them what happened on November 30, 1947, and they can't answer, they can't form an opinion yet. When they learn about the partition plan for Palestine (approved by the UN). When they learn that Israel declared independence in a territory, and the next day, five Arab countries declared war on it, and that's how the map started forming. Learn. If they understand how many times the Palestinians rejected peace proposals, if they study that part, maybe they'll see the other side of the story. I think they're following a trend.
Also, look at what your values are. Ask yourselves what you think about homosexuality, feminism, freedom of the press, free elections. Especially democracy. And then, see if your values align with the Israeli side or the Palestinian side.
For example, 'Queers For Palestine' is an organization that amuses me a lot. Because any of them who go to Gaza or the West Bank... whether it's governed by Hamas or the Palestinian National Authority, if they raise an LGBT flag, they'll probably be killed.
If they learned a little and tried to align their values, they would probably be on the Israeli side of the story. I don't deny that people in Palestine have a hard time. In Gaza especially. But I don't think it's Israel's fault. I think it's their own leaders' fault. Because the leaders of Hamas don't have a bad time at all. They live a millionaire's life when their people are starving.
So, does the solution to end the conflict and establish peace involve eliminating Hamas?
No, it's much more complex than that. Hamas needs to be eliminated, so that October 7 doesn't happen again. But then it's not that there will automatically be peace. We have to see who takes control of the Gaza Strip.
I would like it to be a good Palestinian leader who wants the best for the Palestinians. That's what I really want. But I feel that Palestine doesn't have such a leader. It has leaders who want to enrich themselves, and they don't care about the suffering of their people.
Do you think Hamas can be eradicated in this war?
I think so. But what does eliminating Hamas mean? Kill all the terrorists? There are many thousands.
Rather, kick them out of the Strip.
It's known that many escaped to Egypt. The leaders of Hamas don't live in the Strip either. They live in Qatar or Turkey, or other countries. I think Hamas can be eliminated, to some extent. Killing all the terrorists can be done. Above all, it would be disarming their infrastructure.
Today, my army colleagues enter schools, and they're full of weapons. RPGs, grenades... they have complete arsenals. We're destroying all their arsenals, all their tunnels, all their ammunition. It's going to be very difficult for Hamas. If they want to rearm, it will take them many years.
Now, in Gaza, you went to a hospital.
I didn't enter. Some of us had to surround it, and a unit entered. But it's crazy because they said they found zero patients. There were no doctors either. There was nothing. Only terrorists. And tunnels. It seems that in that hospital before, they had kidnapped people, and when Hamas realized we had surrounded it, they took them through the tunnels.
Where was that exactly?
In Gaza City. In the Rimal neighborhood.
Was the area already evacuated?
I was there for 15 days and didn't see a single civilian.
So you never entered any hospital.
Exactly. My commando unit colleagues did enter and found weapons and terrorists. Recently, they arrested the director of a hospital in Gaza, and he admits that he had doctors who are members of Hamas. Kidnapped people passed through his hospital, and they were there for several days."
During those fifteen days, what was your best moment?
When we reached the sea. We did everything on foot, crossed the entire Gaza Strip on foot. So, upon reaching the sea, even though there was still a long way to go, we felt like we had won. We came walking from Israel. All on foot, and without casualties. So, it was a bit like saying, "good for us."
And beyond the accident, what was the toughest moment?
November 15 is my sister's birthday. I was already a bit sad. It had been two or three weeks without a mobile phone, and I thought, "I hope I didn't ruin my sister's birthday. I hope my parents can celebrate without thinking about me all the time."
I didn't know it, but at that moment, my sister was in Spain on vacation. We are a family that really likes Spain, like any good Argentine. Later, I found out that, for the first time, my parents didn't call my sister on her birthday. They only sent her a message. So, I did ruin her birthday a bit. They were very worried.
So, that day I was sad. At the same time, all my comrades received letters from their parents. All of this was organized through a WhatsApp group, where all the parents spoke Hebrew. Mine don't speak Hebrew, so they are not in the group. They didn't find out about this, so all the soldiers received letters except me. That was the same day as my sister's birthday. I got very sad.
How do you explain to a non-Jewish person the decision of an Argentine to go to war with the Israeli army?
I am a proud Argentine. But why do I defend Israel and not Argentina at this moment? Because Argentina doesn't have enemies around it that want to exterminate the country all the time. There is no one in the world saying they want to wipe Argentina off the map and throw its entire population into the sea. So, there is no need [to defend Argentina]. In contrast, Israel does have that problem all the time. So, I feel like I can help Israel more.
"Now, when there is anti-Semitism in a country, Israel asks it to stop. It is important for me to take care of that."
What does Israel mean to you?
It is something that provides security to all Jews worldwide. Whenever there is anti-Semitism anywhere in the world, Jews know that they can go to Israel, and they will be taken care of there.
And, at the same time, when there is anti-Semitism in a country and the president or prime minister does not do enough to stop it, Israel politically asks them to do so. This, before and during World War II and the Holocaust, did not happen. Now we have it, and it is important for me to take care of it.
We were talking about the solution from the Palestinian perspective. But, as Israel is handling things, is the path to peace possible? Or can something be done differently? How does a soldier see that?
I believe Israel got tired of the Palestinians' refusal to establish peace. In 2009, there was the Olmert Plan. The Prime Minister at that time, Olmert, proposed giving the Palestinians a lot of land, creating a connection between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank so that they would have a united country... they offered them everything. A lot of money, a lot of land. What they had been asking for for a long time.
Israel said it was willing to give them all that for peace. And they rejected it. I think, since that moment, Israel said, "well, if they don't want peace, let's start thinking about ourselves. About continuing as a country, continuing life, improving our businesses, improving our families. Improving the country." And, like any country, it progressed. The GDP improved.
So, I think that, perhaps since 2009, until October 7, Israel became less interested in establishing peace with the Palestinians. But because it understands that Palestine doesn't have any leaders ready to seek peace. They are either very extreme, like Hamas, or only care about getting rich. I think that when the Palestinians have a good leader, someone who cares about the lives of all their people, that will be the moment when things will get much better for them.
As Golda Meir, former Israeli Prime Minister, said: there will be peace when the Arabs love their own children more than they hate the Israelis. When a father prefers not to keep a weapon under his daughter's mattress, and it is more important to him that his daughter grows up, has a good life, studies, and is happy, then there will be peace.
On a personal level, what is your goal for 2024?
My idea is to find a job. I finished university before the army, and I would like to enter the workforce. I want tranquility. I want to go to work nine or ten hours a day, come home, maybe have a partner, or be with my friends. Train, enjoy, and have a beer now and then. I'm looking for a quiet year.
Good luck.
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