An unusual incident in Hazor HaGalilit: 50-year-old Shalom Younisi, who was evacuated from his home in Kiryat Shmona and is staying at the “Beit Bagalil” hotel in the Bira Forest, was attacked by a porcupine. 41 spikes were stuck in his body and he was rushed to Ziv Hospital, where he was anesthetized and operated on. The morning he returned: “A porcupine is a beautiful animal, but I found out that it is aggressive. You must not mess with it.”
Morning news Mako | Published 08/19/24 09:22 | Updated 08/19/24 11:01
Photo: from “Morning News”, Keshet 12
On Saturday night, 50-year-old Shalom Yonesi was rushed to Ziv Hospital in Safed with 41 porcupine spikes embedded in his body. With the outbreak of the war, Yonesi was evacuated from his home in Kiryat Shmona and is currently staying at the “Beit Bagalil” hotel in Hazor HaGalilit. Following the violent encounter with the porcupine near the room where he was sleeping, he was admitted to the hospital, sedated and operated on. The spikes were removed from his body.
The morning Yonesi returned from the hospital bed: “We are staying at a hotel located in the middle of the Biryeh forest. There are many animals there, including porcupines. In the evening I wanted to go down towards the room we are in and I came across a porcupine. The porcupine was standing by a fig tree and eating. I stopped because I did not want to disturb him, but That the porcupine caught me and started running in my direction.”
“I turned around, I wanted to run away, but I ran into a vehicle behind me. I fell to the floor and the porcupine attacked me. I couldn’t do much about it anymore, because it’s a porcupine. You can’t resist it, neither with your hands nor with your legs. Everything has thorns. The porcupine was at zero distance from me when he attacked me. The thorns hit my hands and feet.”
“They didn’t know how to get me into the ambulance because I was all stung” | Photo: Hakad Al-Hakor, Keshet 12
Did you cry for help?
“When the porcupine managed to escape, I was left alone. I saw that I was all stung, I couldn’t do anything. I started shouting, until the hotel tenants heard me and quickly came downstairs. The management and the reception also came, they called an ambulance. The first ambulance didn’t know how to evacuate me because I was all stung. They didn’t know How to get me into the ambulance. Then intensive care came and took me to the hospital in Safed under anesthesia.”
What is the damage caused?
“I will probably need a small operation on my right leg, because there is probably a nerve damage. My condition is a little better, I am trying to recover and move on.”
What is the lesson?
“Do not mess with animals, not even with wild animals that roam freely. You cannot confront them. You must not mess with them. A porcupine is a beautiful animal, an animal that I love very much, but I came to know that it is also aggressive. He shot arrows at me wholeheartedly.”
If the evacuation from the house is not enough, that too fell on you.
“Perhaps this is the method to stop the war, to bring 50 porcupines into Lebanon – and then the war will be over.”
Dr. Dorir Kanaena, the doctor who treated Younis at Ziv Hospital, updated this morning on his condition: “We received a 50-year-old patient with a number of spines in his upper and lower limbs, over 40 spines. The medical team was ready, the patient immediately entered the trauma room and we started treatment accordingly. He was hospitalized for further treatment and surgeries later.”
Did you find a language mistake?
