Tal Porat

A 6-year-old boy and 20-year-old man were killed and five other Israelis injured in Jerusalem just hours before the start of Shabbat today when a terrorist rammed his vehicle into a crowd waiting at a bus stop. 

A Magen David Adom paramedic witnessed the attack and began providing aid immediately while other MDA EMTs and paramedics rushed to the scene to treat others. 

“I was in the car with my wife and children and noticed a car driving fast into the bus stop and crushing the people who were waiting there,” said paramedic Lishai Shemesh. “I stopped at the side and immediately ran towards the victims. A security person neutralized the terrorist. It was a shocking scene. 

“We saw several victims, including 6- to 8-year-old children, who were lying unconscious. We immediately began to triage the victims and provide lifesaving treatment. MDA teams were immediately at the scene in large numbers, and continued treatment while conveying [the victims] to hospital. I joined one of the ambulances and we conveyed a 26-year-old male with a head injury in serious condition to Shaare Tzedek hospital.” 

The 6-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene. A 20-year-old male was pronounced dead in the hospital, and an 8-year-old boy, the brother of the murdered child, is in critical condition. 

The incident occurred in Jerusalem’s Ramot neighborhood, at the corner of Gold Meir Blvd. and Binyamin Mintz. 

Felix Lotan, a senior paramedic who oversees disaster response for Magen David Adom, is a member of Israel’s search and rescue team, which was dispatched to Turkey following that country’s earthquake Monday. Today, together with the IDF team, he rescued a 12-year-old boy and a 23-year-old woman who had been under the rubble for nearly 48 hours. 

“We are working around the clock to save lives,” said Lotan. “The cold weather is very tough, so time is critical. We are doing everything we can to save as many lives as possible in the complex terrain conditions.”

Several other MDA paramedics will be heading to Turkey tonight as part of the international Red Cross response. MDA is also preparing for a long-term operation, providing medical and humanitarian needs to the displaced population.

In the coming hours, a joint Israeli delegation of Magen David Adom, the Ministry of Health, and the IDF is expected to take off, including highly trained MDA paramedics. The delegation will establish a field hospital to provide medical care to victims near the epicenters.

Magen David Adom is in constant contact with the Turkish Red Crescent who reports that apart from the 10 regions affected by the earthquake, there are apparently additional communities that were damaged, but the access roads to them are blocked. Depending on the situation assessment, additional international medical and rescue forces will be requested by Turkey.

Therefore, Magen David Adom, a member of the international Red Cross movement, is preparing alongside the German, Norwegian, and Canadian Red Cross Societies for an immediate establishment of a dedicated field hospital, where they will be able to provide medical and humanitarian aid.

“The need for medical and humanitarian aid is expected to last for many weeks,” said Chaim Rafalowski, director of disaster preparedness for MDA. “We are in continuous contact with the Turkish Red Crescent, as well as with some of the largest Red Cross societies in the world and are prepared to provide additional medical and humanitarian aid immediately.”

Magen David Adom is the only Israeli rescue and EMS organization that is affiliated with the Red Cross and can provide a coordinated response to maximize efforts in the region. 

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A 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked south central Turkey, killing thousands, injuring tens of thousands, and sending shockwaves felt as far away as Israel.

The Israeli military is sending a rescue delegation and Magen David Adom, as Israel’s representative to the International Red Cross, is making aid preparations amid consultations with the Israeli government, the Turkish Red Crescent, and the regional office of the Red Cross.

MDA will be involved in any assistance sent by Israel and will be an essential part of the Red Cross’s response, which would include sending paramedics and EMTs who’ve trained extensively in extracting injured people from rubble and treating a potentially fatal condition known as crush syndrome.

Turkey’s situation is exacerbated by a severe weather front that’s exposing people to freezing temperatures amid homes that are no longer habitable.

Watch Chaim Rafalowski, disaster management coordinator at Magen David Adom, talk to i24 News about the aid mission that is preparing to deploy from Israel to Turkey, and the challenges of the rescue mission:

The quiet of Shabbat in Jerusalem was shattered by gunfire when a terrorist opened fire on passersby on the street, including a motorcyclist and people outside a synagogue in the Neve Yaakov neighborhood on Friday, January 27. On Saturday morning, another shooter shot two men in the City of David.

On Friday night, seven people were killed and several critically wounded others were treated by Magen David Adom at the scene and evacuated to area hospitals. 

“[When we arrived], we saw a woman and four men lying on the road,” said MDA paramedic Fadi Dekaidek, an East Jerusalem Arab resident who was first on the scene.

“They suffered gunshot wounds and showed no signs of life, and we had to declare their deaths. Three other injured, including a 70-year-old woman in critical condition, were conveyed to Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital.” 

The elderly woman was ultimately pronounced dead at the hospital, as was a 14-year-old boy. 

In less than 24 hours, on Shabbat morning, two men, a father and his adult son, who himself is an MDA volunteer, were shot and seriously injured by a 13-year-old gunman. Fadi Dekaidek was again first on the scene. He and other MDA paramedics treated the men and and evacuated them to Shaare Zedek Medical Center. 

Watch how MDA responded to a weekend of carnage.

Magen David Adom paramedics and EMTs remain on high alert and are ready to respond should Israel incur additional terror attacks or rocket launches from Gaza. 

Watch a “Talkline With Zev Brenner” interview with Aryeh Myers of MDA’s Department of International Relations

Read report by CNN

Read report by Fox News

“I’m sure you and the public all know that Magen David Adom is a state all of its own for co-existence. Jews save Arabs. Arabs save Jews. I think it’s an example for the whole world.”Fadi Dekaidek

Fadi Dekaidek, the first Magen David Adom paramedic on the scene of Friday night’s [January 27, 2023] deadly terror attack in Neve Ya’akov, describes the “very difficult” scene he encountered, as he checked the pulses of victims and realized that many of them were dead, and worked to treat the casualties.

He tells Channel 12 news in an interview that the police had given his team the okay to enter the scene, even though gunfire was still audible nearby — possibly from the exchange in which the terrorist, Alqam Khayri, 21, a resident of East Jerusalem, was shot dead by police officers nearby.

Dekaidek says he has been with Magen David Adom for many years, and encountered many terrible scenes, but this was of a different order.

As the senior medic at the scene, “I had to check all the people, to my sorrow including all the fatalities, and to oversee the scene… and to enter the [Ateret Avraham] synagogue, in order to check that there was nobody inside. We had received a [first, inaccurate] report that the incident took place in the synagogue, but fortunately, there was nobody injured inside.”

Ben Caspit, the Channel 12 host, says to him: “Fadi, you realize that you are a man who encapsulates our whole story here. One amazing man. An Arab from East Jerusalem. Someone from your people carried out [this terror attack]. You save the Jews. You treat them. That’s the whole crazy paradox we live in — you encompass it.”

Dekaidek responds: “I’m sure you and the public all know that Magen David Adom is a state all of its own for co-existence. Jews save Arabs. Arabs save Jews. I think it’s an example for the whole world.”

Watch a follow-up Channel 12 interview with Fadi and his family:

Read and watch other media reports and interviews with Fadi:

Israel’s Channel 11

ynetnews.com

The Jerusalem Post

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Video: Israeli President Honors Fadi

The following opinion piece by MDA Director-General Eli Bin was published in South Florida’s SunSentinel on
January 12, 2023. 

Every week there’s another story in the world media about someone who died because of a problem originating at a 911 call center.

In Portland, ambulances are delayed before they’re dispatched while 911 operators go through a list of questions required by automated software.

Outside Washington, D.C., people drown in the Potomac River while calls handled by 911 operators on one side of the river have no means of knowing EMTs are closer to the victim across state lines on the other shore.

And even in Broward County, an investigation by this newspaper found thousands of calls to 911 went unanswered. Officials have called the local 911 system’s technology “materially deficient” and have no mechanism for automatically rerouting calls when they go unanswered.

At Magen David Adom, Israel’s national EMS organization, we read about these problems with dismay. After all, the U.S. is in many ways a far more advanced country than ours.

Israel’s emergency response system is by no means perfect. But we’ve solved some of the very problems the U.S. 911 system is grappling with by capitalizing on two dynamics unique to Israel.

A cycling group of fit, active men over 60 regularly bike Israel’s most rugged trails. Recently, they were cycling in the deep desert canyons of Mitzpe Rimon, when suddenly one cyclist went down.

“I’m literally alive today thanks to a hard lesson learned three years ago,” said Yaron Efrat, 70, who suffered sudden cardiac arrest literally in the middle of nowhere.

A member of the group immediately called MDA’s hotline, and EMT Ortal Cohen Yehezkel instructed the group on how to perform CPR, while at the same time dispatching an MDA Medevac helicopter to the remote location.

“I know how lucky I was this time,” said Efrat. “We paid in blood three years ago on a similar trip when we lost our friend, Shlomo Spitzer, of blessed memory, who collapsed and died in front of our eyes.”

At that time, Kobi Zeltzer, the MDA paramedic who arrived by Medevac helicopter, advised the group to carry a portable defibrillator with them on such vigorous and isolated trips. They took his advice.

When the same paramedic arrived by helicopter this time, Yaron was already fully conscious. “Three years ago, I made the recommendation to buy a defibrillator and they did it,” said Zeltzer. “There’s no doubt that’s what kept Yaron alive. This device saves lives.”

“Thanks to the resourcefulness of the guys, the medic on the MDA hotline, and the defibrillator which just guided us what to do, we saved Yaron’s life,” said a member of the group.

Twenty-one years ago, while the Drori family was preparing dinner, 2-year-old Tzur disappeared. The worried family went into the yard to look for him, and found him unconscious in the pond at the entrance.

“It was a terrifying sight,” recalled Limor, Tzur’s mother. “I ran to call my mother who is a nurse, in the meantime a neighbor who saw us ran to get another neighbor, Dr. Yisrael Julius. He, along with my mother, started to perform CPR, and we called MDA at the same time.”

MDA Paramedic Ziv Kleinbart and EMT Hoter Attias arrived and realized that every minute is critical. “When we arrived at the scene we saw the doctor and the grandmother performing CPR,” said Kleinbart, who today is deputy regional manager of the Ayalon Region.

“We immediately started ventilating Tzur. We continued with the CPR, including drug therapy and chest compressions, and rushed him to Kaplan Hospital while fighting for his life.”

To the surprise of the medical teams, Tzur regained consciousness four days later — on the first night of Chanukah — with no neurological damage.

21 years later, the MDA team met with Tzur and the extended Drori family.

“Our Tzur is alive thanks to you,” said Limor. “He was sedated and ventilated for four days in the intensive care unit. The doctors told us his chances of recovery were slim, and then he suddenly woke up on the day we lit the first candle for Chanukah.

“We celebrated the festival as well as our own miracle, and ever since then Tzur gets two birthday presents each year.”

Tzur presented the MDA team with flowers and a letter of thanks. “Meeting the MDA team that saved my life and to be able to thank them in person is amazing,” said Tzur. “I just don’t have the words. I am alive today thanks to you — you are angels.”

Tzur is arranging a first-aid course in his yeshiva, so that everyone will know how to save lives.

“A meeting like this one fills you with unbelievable strength. You can see the baby that you saved is alive and kicking, and that’s an indescribable feeling. It’s at these sorts of moments that you understand how MDA’s mission is just incredible,” said Attias.

Chanukah, a holiday celebrating freedom, is especially meaningful in Sderot. In this southern Israeli city, more than 1,100 rockets were fired from Gaza in 2022. Last year, more than 4,300 rockets were fired into the small city.

The men and women of Magen David Adom’s Sderot Station are constantly adjusting between routine and emergency calls, moving from states of calm to high alert in minutes, between periods of darkness and times of light.

Last year, to help bring light to them and to the people of Sderot, Boaz Tzabari, the head of volunteers at the Sderot Station, contacted a volunteer paramedic, the artist Avi Tzafon.  Together, they collected parts of Qassam rockets found at the scenes where MDA teams were treating the injured and saving lives. These became one of the triangles of the Star of David chanukiyah Tzafon designed and built.

The second triangle is painted red, symbolizing MDA, as well as the red alert sirens that sent the residents to bomb shelters on a regular basis. Together, the triangles represent the connection between MDA and the Sderot people, many of whom are their own family and friends.

“It’s especially poignant on Chanukah that we see these rockets that tried to harm us, to scare us, and bring darkness with them, and now they are used to bring light, continuing the bravery of the Maccabees,” said Tzabari.

“It shows the bravery of the staff in MDA Sderot, and the bravery of the volunteers. Their light isn’t only on Chanukah, but all year round, whether in times of conflict, or times of peace.”

This year, the chanukiyah sits atop the MDA Sderot Station for all to admire and be uplifted.

Magen David Adom, in partnership with the Israeli Health Ministry, convened a conference for 200 medical professionals on the accessibility and provision of breast milk for newborns in need. The conference was led by MDA’s Sussman Family Foundation Milk Bank, located at its new headquarters in the Marcus National Blood Services Center in Ramla, Israel.

The goal of the conference, which took place in the Mark D. Lebow Convening Center, was to raise awareness among hospital administrators and religious leaders about the importance of providing breast milk to premature infants. “For premature infants, breast milk is medicine,” said Dr. Sharron Bransburg-Zabary, head of the Sussman Milk Bank. It’s not a luxury for hospitals to supply; it’s a necessity, she explained.

Regarding religious concerns that sometimes arise, she said, “Milk is the common denominator that should unite us in saving lives, not separate us.” To that end, a session on the religious implications and concerns about donating and accepting breast milk from women who are not the babies’ birth mothers was held.

The panel included four heads of religions in Israel: Chief Rabbi David Lau; head of Sharia Courts, Qadi Eiad Zahalka; head of the Greek Catholic Church, Archbishop Dr. Yousef Matta; and Qadi Abu Ayash of the Druze Religious Court. All the panelists equally praised and encouraged the provision of what is often a lifeline to premature infants.

“It is amazing to be able to provide the wonders of creation in the best way possible in order to provide for children,” said Rabbi Lau. Both the donor and recipient “should rejoice, and may you receive heavenly blessings.”

The head of the Islamic court raised one concern that children who receive milk from the same mother are considered siblings. “Any children who have nursed from the same mother cannot marry each other,” said Qadi Eiad Zahalka. “But it is very important that we should have the milk bank and keep a registry of the donor mothers so that when the children marry, we can ensure they are not closely related.”

For many reasons, mothers of premature infants are often unable to provide their own milk. Over the past two years, MDA’s Sussman Milk Bank has supplied more than three and a half tons of milk to premature babies.

Breast milk provides critical nutrition and antibodies to preemies, many of whom can’t tolerate any other food source because of their underdeveloped digestive and immune systems. MDA identifies and interviews potential donor mothers across Israel, and picks up, tests, pasteurizes, stores, and distributes the milk to hospital neonatal units.

Magen David Adom’s International Unit, established in 2007, includes hundreds of doctors and paramedics from a number of countries who voluntarily come to Israel to receive emergency service training. This enables them to return to Israel in times of need to volunteer for MDA.

For the first time since the pandemic began, MDA held the International Emergency Response Seminar for a new cohort of 31 doctors and paramedics. The medical professionals came from the United States, Canada, Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Sweden.

They participated in five days of intensive training that included a series of lectures and exercises, a multi-casualty drill, a joint drill with the Home Front Command, tours of MDA’s medical facilities and Command and Control Center, and served on ambulances.

“It is a source of great pride for us that senior physicians, among them surgeons, experts in emergency medicine, psychiatrists, family doctors, and anesthesiologists all voluntarily join us in the State of Israel from across the world and undergo training with Magen David Adom,” said Eli Bin, MDA’s director-general.

“This is of vital importance, as it means that in times of crisis they will be able to return to Israel and assist MDA teams in providing treatment on the front lines.”

The Jerusalem Post — Two construction workers were killed and one was seriously injured when scaffolding collapsed from a 12-story building in Givat Ze’ev near Jerusalem. All three were trapped under rubble and eventually pulled out by the Fire and Rescue Authority.

MDA medics Eli Raymond and Moshe Blach said, “When we arrived there was a commotion and we heard shouting. We saw a pile of scaffolding that had collapsed from a height of a 12-story building. We noticed several [construction] workers walking around the place after having anxiety attacks.”

Read more on The Jerusalem Post>>