On October 7, Israelis were attacked by a murderous terrorist regime that had planned its massacre for years, crafting each step to ensure maximum results – maximum death, destruction, captives, and provocation.
But something else happened on that day. There was an unprecedented institutional failure in Israel, and people paid with their lives. When institutions fail us in times of national crises, the true spirit of civilians comes forth.
The volunteers of United Hatzalah, Israel’s medical emergency organization dedicated to saving lives, showed us what this spirit looks like on October 7. Our volunteers – lawyers, doctors, DJs, store clerks, teachers, and truck drivers; women and men; Jews, Muslims, and Christians – are the true face of Israeli society and on that bloody Saturday, they entered the southern border communities and kibbutzim under attack and saved more than 2,500 lives.
As Israeli institutions failed their citizens – mothers and children trapped in safe rooms begging for help, injured civilians desperately calling national emergency services for medical aid, families seeking rescue by security forces – the ordinary people who make up United Hatzalah put on their orange vests, hopped into ambulances and onto motorcycles, and went directly into the line of fire, taking on the role that national emergency services failed to fulfill.
Entering the line of fire to save lives
They stayed in the war zone from the onset of the attack on Saturday morning and throughout the days that followed. They left behind loved ones, knowing they might not see them again. They saved civilians and soldiers who had been shot by terrorists.
As the CEO of this organization, I am filled with pride knowing that our people adhered to their commitment to the preservation of human life, no matter the cost. Today, I am more confident than ever in United Hatzalah’s vision and unique approach to saving lives, and we must continue to expand and strengthen our mission.
On average, our volunteers take care of more than 2,000 emergencies a day, treating approximately 750,000 people a year and saving countless lives.
Since its establishment in 2006, in each area where we have noticed that there was a shortage of medical personnel, United Hatzalah established new medical units – recruiting, training, and supplying medical equipment to volunteers. In this way, we ensured that across Israel, from the north to the south, there would be people trained and ready to provide life-saving medical treatment within minutes.
In the art of life-saving, time is invaluable, and our ability to arrive at the scene of the emergency from within the local community in record time has become our greatest asset.
DURING PREVIOUS rounds of conflict between Israel and Hamas, we saw that Israel’s southern Gaza border region was not equipped to treat people in real time. In Operation Cast Lead in 2008, local medical clinics across this area were closed due to the fighting, and people resorted to driving to hospitals in the surrounding areas.
We found ourselves sending medical personnel from Israel’s central area to operate these clinics. This was a red flag, and we heeded the warning and decided to invest heavily in the south, strengthening our reach in the region with the establishment of well-trained emergency medical units.
We understood that in times of conflict and chaos, the real first responders – those who can arrive at the scene first in minimal time – are those who live inside the affected areas. This is our model. We enlist people who live inside the communities and transform them into professional medics and paramedics, on call and ready to answer a medical emergency within minutes.
When it comes to saving lives, each second is precious, especially in emergencies where people endure serious injuries such as bullet wounds, but also in day-to-day life when a baby chokes or people are severely injured in a car crash. Our innovative platform notifies volunteers of a medical emergency according to their live location, much like Uber, which offers its drivers rides according to their location.
United Hatzalah crafted a national emergency service that can provide effective immediate aid, utilizing volunteers on the ground to ensure a fast and immediate response. The organization was founded on the vision of arriving at the emergency within 90 seconds, and this commitment stands at the core of everything we do.
United Hatzalah volunteers are equipped with the right form of transport for the areas they are working in. In densely populated urban areas, volunteers use our fully-equipped motorcycles to bypass traffic. Across Israel, our ambulances speed through freeways and main roads to take injured civilians to hospitals.
In mountainous terrain, farmland, and sandy areas, our volunteers use tractors. We have helicopters for severe emergencies and boats to save lives in the river and the sea. The organization has adapted itself to Israel’s diverse geographic landscape, both with its medical units spanning urban and rural areas and with the means they use to reach the person in need.
I am often asked why people with full-time jobs and families volunteer with a 24/7 emergency service that provides them with no income and takes time away from their busy lives. The answer is always the same: we all have that special DNA, the biological makeup that gives us the drive to do good and save people during the most desperate of times.
The orange blood of United Hatzalah runs through our veins – a calling to help other human beings no matter the circumstances, conditions, or time of day. It is this unwavering spirit that fuels our organization.
OUR SOLE objective is to preserve human life, and just as our volunteers serve from a place of civil duty, we ensure that medical service is provided to all people free of charge, regardless of whether they were evacuated by an ambulance or treated by a medic on a motorbike. We want to ensure that no life will be lost due to the high monetary cost of medical aid.
Through donations from righteous individuals and philanthropic organizations in North America and across the world, we were able to make this vision a reality and provide indiscriminate medical care to millions of individuals thus far.
After the massacre of October 7 and the countless lives our people saved on the ground, we call on people who sanctify life to join us and contribute to our cause.
As Jewish tradition teaches, one who destroys a life is considered to have destroyed the entire world; one who saves a life has saved the entire world. The Jewish concept of the sanctity of human life drives us to innovate and perfect the art of lifesaving.
Those same people who lived inside the southern communities and kibbutzim that were attacked on October 7 were the people who showed up first to provide life-saving medical treatment to their families, friends, and neighbors.
On October 7, United Hatzalah passed the ultimate test. We have the people, the equipment, and the operational know-how. We know how to operate in times of crisis. But in an event as dramatic and complex as Hamas’s massacre of Israelis, we were tested, and we proved that our investment in lifesaving paid off. Our volunteers proved that they were willing to sacrifice themselves. We showed the true power of community and national spirit.
One of our volunteers was kidnapped while on duty and remains in Gaza until today. He left his wife and children in the safe room of their home to tend to the injured people in his community. Another volunteer, a combat soldier on weekend break, was killed while treating people.
A volunteer of Arab descent treated injured youngsters at the music festival in Re’im, where Hamas barbarically slaughtered innocent party-goers. He was another one of the innocent victims killed.
A soldier who fought in Gaza, an active United Hatzalah volunteer, who managed his district’s logistics center, fell during the war in Gaza, while many other volunteers have been killed on duty in Gaza and along the Northern border with Lebanon.
On that day, these brave individuals shared a common fate. They sacrificed themselves to save lives – Jews and Arabs, men and women, young adults, and seniors acted as one in relentless bravery and selflessness.
United Hatzalah was the only medical service on the ground. Shoulder to shoulder with IDF forces, volunteers entered the battle zone, and as the IDF killed terrorists, United Hatzalah saved the lives of people the terrorists were trying to kill.
United Hatzalah is committed to always being there to save lives, in day-to-day life and in times of crises.
The writer is the CEO of United Hatzalah.