United Hatzalah senior officer Linor Attias lost her uncle in a bombing at a Jerusalem cafe, a moment that, she says, defined her path.
“No one knew to let us know if he was even there,” Attias told The Jerusalem Post. “It took a lot of hours… It was chaotic. You feel helpless."
That sense of helplessness, she said, is what pushed her into emergency response. Two decades later, she has become a senior figure in United Hatzalah, one of the country’s largest volunteer medical organizations.
“I decided that I didn't want to feel helpless like this anymore,” she said. “I wanted to dedicate my life to helping others so they won’t feel helpless if a tragedy occurs.”
However, “Nothing prepared me for October 7,” she said.
“This is my people, my country,” she said. “I was one of the victims.”
Attias’ career reflects the evolution of Israel’s volunteer-based emergency response system, which has expanded rapidly in both scale and diversity in recent years, particularly following the events of October 7 and the subsequent regional escalation.
Unlike traditional emergency services, United Hatzalah operates primarily through volunteers, many of whom respond to calls within seconds using personal vehicles, ambulances, and motorcycles.
Eli Beer, the founder and director of United Hatzalah, has described the model as a proven critical emergency relief mechanism during sustained crises, when official systems face increased strain.
Linor Attias's current role
Today, Attias serves in multiple roles within United Hatzalah, including managing its communications division and acting as deputy for international emergency operations. She has previously responded to disasters abroad, including in Ukraine and Turkey.
In the aftermath of October 7, Attias said she witnessed a sharp increase in volunteerism across Israeli society, including among previously underrepresented communities. Among them were growing numbers of Arab Israelis, a development she described as both practical and symbolic.
The destruction of October 7 left all parts of Israeli society in shock and led it to confront the reality the country faces, according to Attias. “They understood that it’s not only the Jewish [community] at risk. It’s everyone who lives here.”
The result, she said, has been a more integrated volunteer force, with joint training exercises bringing together religious and secular Israelis, Jews and Arabs, and men and women, resulting in what she described as “a beautiful bridge."
Women in the field
That shift is particularly visible in the growing presence of women in emergency response roles, a trend that aligns with broader changes in Israeli society.
United Hatzalah has reported that women now make up a significant and increasing portion of volunteer medics, including in traditionally conservative communities.
“We have so many ultra-Orthodox women and so many Muslim women… breaking the glass ceiling in their society,” Attias said.
Some have taken on roles once considered inaccessible, including driving ambulances and rapid-response motorcycles to serve their broader communities.
The rise in ultra-Orthodox women joining United Hatzalah’s volunteer force reflects a broader surge of this demographic entering the Israeli workforce.
Employment rates among ultra-Orthodox women have reached 80%, approaching the 83% rate seen among secular women.
While training and medical protocols remain identical, Attias argues that these women often bring additional strengths to the field, particularly in high-stress situations.
“It’s intuition… It’s a different mechanism, how to approach someone who is suffering,” she said, describing her observations of men and women responding to emergencies.
Attias noted that these differing approaches can complement one another in the field, helping teams assess complex situations more effectively, particularly when distinguishing between physiological conditions and stress- or shock-driven symptoms.
Beyond politics
For Attias, the defining characteristic of Israel’s volunteer response is not only its scale, but its ability to operate above social divisions that often stereotype perceptions of Israeli society.
“When it’s the right time to step up, we don’t care about different ideas or politics,” she said. “We just stand together, and everyone does their best.”
That principle, she said, is embedded in the organization’s daily work.
“Our goal is to save life... when you need to save someone’s life, you don’t care about who they are.”
More than 20 years after the attack that set her on this path, Attias continues to operate both behind the scenes and on the front lines of crisis response with United Hatzalah.