The IDF disabled person who set himself on fire in protest of his treatment, Itzik Saidian , was released today (Thursday) from the rehabilitation department at Sheba Tel Hashomer Hospital, two years after the incident. "I am here to continue the cry of the victims of the battle. This day is a small victory, but it's hard that the reform in the Ministry of Defense's rehabilitation department has stalled," he said. "I'm not a celebrity and I don't want to be famous, I want to go back to being the Itzik of old. The act I did is the most horrible act that can happen and it must not happen again, I wish for myself to get out of the spotlight."

"They looked at me like someone who came to spend money": Itzik Saidian in the first interview
"Wake-up call": A wounded IDF man tried to set fire to the office of the Rehabilitation Division in Tiberias

"For the government of Israel and the people of Israel, it is important for me to say that the reform has stalled. It is difficult for me that it has stalled, I hear from friends that the committees have returned to making it difficult as before," Saidian said. I ask the government not to forget us, there are thousands like me. I was locked up at home for six years and every day is a war that cannot be explained in words. Loneliness can kill."

Saidian thanked the team that treated him at the medical center: "I still can't digest it, it will take me some time to digest leaving here. I went through two very intense years, and this place has become a kind of shelter. The road does not end here and I still have a long rehabilitation and quite a few surgeries – you were The angels who saved my life, thank you to everyone who was with me in the battle of the last two years. Thank you, this is a small illness for what I feel. Thank you also to the cleaning workers and auxiliary forces and to the family and doctors."

Last January, Saidian celebrated his 28th birthday in the hospital, and wrote in a post on Facebook: "From the lowest place I reached in my life, I somehow slowly began to return to the place where I fulfilled what I wanted to say – here I am, celebrating 28 years, despite all the predictions, I should end my life at the age 26, two years have passed and I'm here somehow walking around and everyone knows me."

Saidian was severely burned when he set himself on fire in front of the Ministry of Defense's Rehabilitation Center offices in Petah Tikva, the day before Memorial Day for the fallen of the IDF two years ago. After that, the Ministry of Defense promoted the "One Soul" reform, which was designed to improve the situation of the disabled in the IDF in general and post-trauma victims in particular.