INDEPENDENT REPORTING
THE FIGHT BACK.
“These are elite fighters,” Dovev, 49, told The Times of Israel while he surveyed the crowded gym. “One day they were doing extreme missions, and the next day they were in a hospital bed. They are warriors, and we want them to be warriors again.”
Today, House of Heroes, which receives no government funding and relies on private donations, trains about 80 people each week. The goal is to establish a permanent center with capacity for 300-400 trainees.
Dovev said plans include a state-of-the-art facility that will be a “one-stop shop,” with ice baths, saunas, massages, emotional support and psychological counseling.
Gentle and tough interventions
“The House of Heroes is an inspiring place which offers great sensitivity towards injured soldiers, including those with PTSD,” Hazanov told The Times of Israel.
He explained that in recent decades, PTSD treatment has increasingly incorporated approaches such as mindfulness and yoga, “gentler interventions that are effective and important, that we also use.”
However, he believes that for combat veterans with PTSD, mixed martial arts is particularly valuable because it adds “another essential dimension” that can activate a “healthy fight response.”
Hazanov said that he does mixed martial arts training with his patients, “which gives them another layer of security and puts us all in the same boat.”
“Reclaiming that part of themselves can be an important element of recovery,” he said.
On a sunny afternoon at the House of Heroes recently, Yehonatan Maatuf, 23, a Golani combat veteran, arrived for practice wearing his prosthetic arm.
He unfastened it, put it in his gym bag, took off his shoes and stepped barefoot onto the mat.
Maatuf told The Times of Israel that he was severely wounded in his right hand in the Gaza Strip on April 11, 2025, the first night of Passover.
While he was being evacuated in a helicopter, he recalled asking if there was a chance to save his hand. Later, he understood that it had been amputated.
“It’s a miracle it was my right hand because I’m left-handed,” Maatuf said.