From the Bushes to the Badge: An October 7 Hero Steps into His Calling

Israelis living in the Gaza envelope are all too familiar with rocket barrages and other attacks from the Strip. So when Aya Meydan heard the explosions, she assumed it was another rocket attack, much like what they had experienced countless times before. Nonetheless, the 42-year-old mother of three left her biking partner to head home to her family. Her biking partner was killed on his way home, the Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) reported.

An Unlikely Encounter

On her way home, Meydan encountered three young Bedouin men. “All of a sudden, I see three figures running toward me shouting as rockets were in the sky,” she told JNS.

They were Hisham Alkarnawi, his brother and his cousin, Bedouins who worked at the dining hall on the kibbutz (collective community). Meydan vaguely recognized them from the dining hall but wasn’t sure what to make of them.

The three had fled the kibbutz after witnessing Hamas terrorists, some dressed in Israeli military uniforms, shooting residents near the dining hall.

The three young men warned her of what was unfolding in the community: the killing of men, women and children, not merely the rocket barrages that had become a grim routine for those living near the enclave.

The group eventually split up, but Meydan and Alkarnawi stuck together. The young Bedouin, having seen the terrorists disguised in Israeli military uniforms, warned her not to trust anyone.

 “I didn’t understand why he told me this,” Meydan told JNS, “and for a moment, I thought maybe he was a terrorist who would kill me.”

Seven Hours in Hiding

Nonetheless, she stayed by his side, and the two ended up hiding in bushes—where they would remain for seven hours.

Alkarnawi asked Meydan to borrow her cell phone to call his father for help, as terrorists had stolen his car and phone. When he began speaking with his family in Arabic, Meydan’s fear surged.

“That was all I needed to hear,” Meydan said, as she had already received text messages from her brother about the Hamas infiltration. “But I soon understood that if he hadn’t killed me yet, he was my method of escape.” 

Seven hours later, the pair heard a chopper in the air, and Alkarnawi’s father confirmed that help was on the way. Four of his father’s cousins arrived in a car, having used a photo Alkarnawi sent them of two large peanut containers nearby as a landmark to find them. 

Everyone piled into the vehicle and began speeding away, only to be stopped by Israeli paratroopers with guns drawn, who ordered everyone out of the vehicle.

The Bedouins cried out, “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot! We are Israeli citizens.” Meydan also stepped out, fell to the ground and echoed their pleas, assuring the paratroopers that the Muslim men had rescued her. The paratroopers verified the story and escorted Meydan to the nearby Ofakim police station.

Even after she came under the protection of the Israeli police and later was placed on a chartered bus to reunite her with her relatives in a safe zone away from the border area, Alkarnawi’s family followed the bus in their own vehicle and waited until they saw her safely reunited with a family member before returning home to the Bedouin Negev city of Rahat.

A Hero Takes the Oath

Last October, two years after that fateful morning, Alkarnawi officially became an officer of the Israel Police.

“I felt that I had to contribute more,” Sgt. 1st Class Alkarnawi, now 23, told JNS. “I liked the feeling of being able to save another human being.

He now serves at the Israel Police station in Ofakim—the very station where Aya Meydan was brought to safety on October 7. The young, untrained hero of that Black Sabbath has donned a badge and a uniform, stepping fully into the role he was always meant to fill. 

Recounting the story on X, Arab Israeli activist Yoseph Haddad wrote: “This is one of many stories of Israeli Arabs who helped save the lives of Jews from the inferno and massacre of ISIS-Hamas. We are all together against terrorism, without exceptions, one country, one Israeli society.”