Israeli soldiers guard along a fence leading to Judea and Samaria, as part of search efforts to capture six Palestinian terrorists who escaped from Gilboa Prison earlier this week, by the village of Muqeibila in northern Israel, September 9, 2021. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo

The father of an IDF soldier severely wounded in a clash with Palestinian terrorists near the West Bank town of Jenin over the weekend said Monday that the situation was a “nightmare” and that his son was a person of “excellence and humility.”

The soldier was a member of the IDF’s undercover Duvdevan unit, which conducts operations in Arab towns and villages, usually in disguise.

He is one of two soldiers seriously wounded during an operation that interdicted a Hamas terror cell that was planning to carry out an attack. Five of the terrorists were killed and several arrested.

Both soldiers’ conditions have reportedly improved since Monday morning, though they remain in serious condition.

Israeli news site Walla reported that the soldier’s father, named only as Yossi, said he is currently living in a “nightmare.”

“Today, I held his hand before he went in for an operation, and I can’t believe that it’s him,” he said. “I will not leave the hospital until he’s on his feet.”

His son, Yossi said, was angry with him because Yossi had allowed a beacon to be lit in tribute to him in their hometown.

Yossi said that his children had been educated “for excellence, to be in elite [IDF] units. With all the worries, we’re incredibly proud of them. If you educate in a particular way, you can’t tell them to go and become a jobnik” — a term for non-combat soldiers.

He said that he had heard his son had been at the forefront of the battle with the terrorists and “it didn’t surprise us.”