Two ambucycles belonging to United Hatzalah were stolen from two different neighborhoods in Jerusalem on the first day of the Sukkot holiday, according to a United Hatzalah spokesperson.
Furthermore, on the same day, a third attempted theft of an ambucycle occurred in Tel Aviv, but thieves were deterred by the internal security system used to safeguard the vehicles.
Joint efforts by the medical organization, the IDF and Israeli police managed to recover one of the stolen ambucycles in the Palestinian town of ad-Dhahiriya, located south of Hebron.
"These were the third, fourth, and fifth attempts this week to steal United Hatzalah ambucycles," said Eli Beer, President and Founder of United Hatzalah. "Unfortunately, this has become somewhat of a plague affecting the work of our volunteers who rely on these vehicles to respond to medical emergencies and save lives."
"These are the first two attempts in a while to have been successful and in both cases," he continued. "We will work tirelessly until we recover the second."
Avraham, a volunteer for United Hatzalah whose ambucycle was stolen, expressed his frustration with the incident: "I was not able to respond to any medical emergency over the holiday because of it."