JERUSALEM, Israel – The phrase "War is Hell" has resonated since U.S.General William Tecumseh Sherman said it to military cadets 14 years after the Civil War.  Israeli combat engineer, Lt. Col. Levi Davis experienced the hell of war firsthand in Gaza. He had just been married for two months when Hamas's attack on October 7^th plunged him into combat. 

In a studio interview with CBN News, Davis remembered, "We were called down to Gaza, to specifically deal with tunnels and enemy infrastructure, just to blow them up with all of the tunnels of Hamas. Those tunnels have been such a point of so much death and so much destruction and trauma, and taking the hostages in, but our forces being inside, they've used it to come out and hurt our forces."

Davis continued, "So for three months we were in and out of Gaza every day, and we would have one or two missions, sometimes three or four, every single day, and we would have to go in, do our work, come out, reload our explosives, going in again. And it was very, very physically intense. Not much sleep. Many early mornings, many late nights.  But there was so much work."

We asked Davis how the men knew where the tunnels were.

He replied, "There are many, many units inside all the time moving forward, clearing out streets. And as they were moving forward, they would identify these tunnels or these different places that would need to be dealt with. And they would call us, and they would send us the location, and they would be there waiting for us.

The work required swift coordination between the tunnel units, but sometimes Davis's group would hit delays that saved their lives.

He recalled, "And me and my friends, we were working on one tunnel, we were about to go to the next one, and (were) just about 20 meters away from this next tunnel that we had already been supposed to be working on, but we were delayed."

He added, "It literally blew up right in front of us. Thankfully, the Lord really protected us, and He delayed us from even getting there."

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One day in Gaza, Davis and his team experienced a soldier's nightmare, caught by surprise with tunnels and buildings exploding within seconds of each other. But miraculously, he survived.

"It was in the center of Gaza, El-Bureij," Davis explained. "There was a missile factory that was discovered. There was lots of very important equipment that had been smuggled from outside of the country into Gaza. There were about eight tunnels that were connected. We had many tanks guarding us. We had a lot of people on the ground that were guarding. There was a lot of, a lot of commotion around this mission. 

"And suddenly, my machine that we, I, use every day to pump in these explosives, suddenly stopped working," he continued. "I did everything I could do in my power to fix it. I called technicians, I tried to do all the regular things, and I finally figured out what the problem was, and I was just , I just – there was something loose in the air pressure, and I just tightened it there, and it was about to flow the explosives into the tunnel."

Suddenly, he heard an explosion.

He described the next life-threatening moments. "I looked to my left, 20 meters there, the tunnel that was just north of us, everything. Two tons of explosives in the air, 50 meters that way. Another one. And many more around us that I didn't see. It was just shocking to see it so close. And suddenly the rocks are falling. And I was hit with a big block in my neck that actually paralyzed me for about like a minute.  I couldn't move and I thought that was it. I thought I was going to be paralyzed, but after about, I don't know, maybe 20, 30 seconds, I started to feel tingling in my body, and I was back up on my feet within a minute. I was there with about another four teammates, but quickly we were on the (communications devices) trying to get our officer, and he wasn't answering.  And there were ones from our team that got wounded from the rocks and from the wave that came from the explosions. So we were helping them,and others were going to see what was *happening with the) others. And very quickly, we found out that there were four more of our teammates that were really badly wounded and two of our teammates that were killed.

The questions were inevitable: why did he survive, and his friends didn't? Where was God in the battle?

Davis answered, "I know so clearly that he's kept me up because he has more for me to do. To be light, to be salt where we are. We need to be walking in that calling, walking in what he’s called us to do, using the gifts that he's given us to use. And I think one of the big things in my process of the aftermath and the Lord healing my heart, one of the biggest and the first things that really happened was just Him reassuring me of His presence there, even in that place of death and destruction, that He was there and that He prepared the way before us.

Davis may have sensed God's protection, but he still had to wrestle with battlefield mistakes and forgive his enemies who caused the tragedy.

There were so many mistakes that happened that day, and I had to forgive a lot, and I don't think I could do it without Yeshua (Jesus) forgiving me and Him shedding His blood for me and for forgiving all of those others that I had a hard time forgiving. But until October 7th, I had never really experienced what Yeshua called us to do in Matthew: praying for our enemies, loving our enemies, praying for those who persecute us. That was just a verse that I was like, oh, that's nice. And maybe, maybe I had a bully at school that felt like my enemy. But no, this is a real enemy that wants to kill us."

He added, "But the Lord died for them too. Just praying for the Lord to show up in the camps of Hamas and the camps of Hezbollah, and to reveal himself to open their eyes by his mercy, to allow them to find him.  And it sounds so like, why would I pray for my enemy? But it's something that the Lord calls us to do. I believe It's something that he will use us to heal our hearts.