"I remember the days at home. You wake up in your own bed every morning. And every day is all over again… it still makes me feel… that you will not lose one eye… and like... you never will," said Gon Soussana, on Israel-Gaza border.  

It was a morning in the summer of 2014, Gaza. Gon, the brigade commander, and his unit were tasked with finding a Hamas tunnel.

"The minute we went into the neighborhood, we saw the tunnel entrance. And then the shooting started in every direction," Gon recalled.  

He doesn't know how long the firefight lasted, but when he ran to the transporter to change his weapon's magazine, the signal commander yelled at him: "You're covered in blood." Gon didn't feel by then the bullet had penetrated his left eye.

Blind but alive

Gon was evacuated by a helicopter and remained in the hospital for a month and underwent four surgeries to try and save his eye. He is technically blind and still working with a team of medical experts to try and regain his sight.

"When you use gun sight, one eye is fixed on the scope and the other eye is shut tight. The bullet hit me in that one."

The bullet was fired by one of the Gaza operatives in the area.

Israel's entire operation in Gaza that summer lasted 50 days. The goal was to knock out Hamas rocket launching positions and destroy the group's underground tunnel network used for transporting and hiding weapons, and operatives who try infiltrating into Israel. 

Living on the border  

Gon doesn't blame anyone for his lost eye, and he says it's part of the risk of being a mission commander.

He does take issue with the latest Gaza incendiary kites and balloons across the border into Israel, setting thousands of hectares ablaze, burning up crops and wildlife.

Gon grew up in Kibbutz on the Gaza-Israel border, and throughout the years, he has grown somewhat accustomed to running for shelter when air raid sirens signal incoming rockets. But he still cannot get used to the loss of wheat, corn, potato and almond crops.  

"It will take years for the crops to regrow the amount we lost. It's sad, but there's absolutely nothing we can do about it," said Gon.  

Gon is pro-peace and says he feels sorry for all the people living in Gaza under harsh conditions.