IDF Soldiers: Photo: IDF.

While IDF soldier Gal Ganon was laid up in a hospital bed at Tel Hashomer Hospital near Tel Aviv, wounded in fighting in Gaza, he didn’t know that his buddy, St.-Sgt. Avi Grintzvaig, 21, from Petah Tikva, was no longer alive.

When Ganon was given the awful news, he asked his medical team to allow him to attend the funeral of his brother-in-arms.

“If I didn’t go, I knew I’d regret it the rest of my life,” Ganon told Israel’s Channel 2 News.

Both Ganon and Grintzvaig sustained serious shrapnel wounds last Friday when their vehicle was hit by an anti-tank rocket.

“On Friday at 12:30, we got word from the doctor treating him that Gal was wounded from a rocket near Beit Hanoun (in northern Gaza),” his father Shimon said.

Shimon hasn’t left his son’s bedside since the attack.

“At 5 am Saturday morning, he awoke and said to me, ‘Abba – I have a bad feeling, and want to sms (text message) my company commander,'” Shimon recalled.

Gal recorded a brief video message to his officers and unit.

“Know that I love you guys, love all of you, and that I’ll be ok,” he said. “Watch out for yourselves, and get home safely; I love you, commander.”

But, as he sent his encouraging message, Gal didn’t know that his platoon commander, Gilad Pasternak, was in surgery for his own wounds sustained in battle.

Pasternak lived through surgery, but Grintzvaig didn’t.

“In the last eight days I’ve lost two friends, and didn’t succeed in attending their funerals,” Gal told his doctors.

“This is the third friend that I’ve lost, and if I don’t make his funeral, I’ll regret it the rest of my life,” he pleaded.

His physicians relented, and allowed him to attend the burial of his friend, killed in action against Hamas.

Watch a video report on the story below: