On Sunday night, March 27, two bearded gunmen in white began shooting at civilians and police in Hadera, a coastal city midway between Tel Aviv and Haifa. Six people were wounded, two fatally.
Magen David Adom teams performed triage at the scene. After providing lifesaving treatment, the surviving victims were rushed to Hillel Yaffe Medical Center.
“We saw six victims, some laying on the road and some on the sidewalk, all with bullet wounds,” said Victor Kelly, an EMT with MDA. “We performed primary triage in the field, provided lifesaving treatment and conveyed two seriously wounded and two moderately wounded to the hospital.
“There was a man and woman who had no signs of life and unfortunately we had to pronounce them dead.”
Both fatalities, each only 19-years-old, were members of the border police who came to the aid of civilians. The terrorists were shot dead by undercover police officers who were dining in a restaurant nearby, but several of the wounded were other police officers caught in a gun battle with the terrorists.
The shooting came only days after an attack in the southern city of Be’er Sheva. The assailants in both attacks were supporters of the Islamic State. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Hadera incident and praised it as an “immersive commando attack.”
The last attack for which the group claimed responsibility occurred in 2017. Israeli authorities are already on high alert, anticipating increased violence as Israel meets in the Negev for an economic forum with friendly Arab states, including Egypt, Bahrain, Morocco, and the United Arab Emirates and during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins April 1.
“Our paramedics and EMTs have extensive experience responding to these types of attacks,” said Eli Bin, director-general of MDA. “Our teams are all equipped with flak jackets and helmets and, when necessary, have access to armored ambulances, so we can respond as safely as possible even when gunmen are still at large.
“That enables us to respond quickly — even in an ongoing incident — and provide the wounded with the best chances of making a full recovery,” he said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with those recovering from this latest act of barbarism and with the families of those who were killed.”
