Thousands of Israelis flocked to blood donation centers on Saturday, responding to Magen David Adom (MDA)’s call for blood, leading to an unexpectedly-high turnout of people.
The volume prompted MDA, Israel’s national emergency medical service, to ask donors to pause their offers to give blood. The requests have been publicized due to hundreds-of-Israelis who have been hospitalized, as result of a number of terrorist attacks on Saturday.
In an official statement, MDA said on Saturday, “Due to a tremendous overload of people wanting to donate blood, we request to stop coming for now. We will notify you when it will be possible to come and donate blood again.”
The statement further highlighted that starting from 10.30 a.m. on Saturday, MDA’s blood services began their donation initiative, urging especially those with type O blood, but also donors of all other blood types, to participate.
MDA has provided a list of updated venues for blood donation:
Tel Aviv: Sourasky Medical CenterJerusalem: MDA station at 7 Hamem-Gimel St.Haifa: MDA station located at 34 Yitzhak Sade St.Tiberias: MDA station at 1 Kishon St.Tel Hashomer: MDA’s dedicated blood services unit in the Tel Hashomer hospital.