The blast killed 4, including 3 children.
Magen David Adom immediately dispatched ambulances, MICUs, and first responders on Medicycles following reports to its 101 emergency hotline of a car explosion in the central city of Ramla.
MDA EMTs and paramedics provided medical treatment and transported 12 injured people to Shamir Medical Center in Be’er Ya’akov and Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot. Those evacuated include five unconscious people in critical condition, a 50-year-old woman, a 15-year-old girl, a 10-year-old boy, a 5-year-old girl, and 1-month-old infant who inhaled a significant amount of smoke and whom MDA provided advanced resuscitation while en route to the hospital. Additionally, a man and a woman in their 50s were in moderate condition from shrapnel and blast injuries and five others were lightly injured due to shrapnel and blast injuries. Four people, including 3 children, were pronounced dead.
The car exploded while it was parked near a store and an apartment building on Herzl Boulevard. The explosion caused a fire to spread to the nearby store, essentially trapping the people inside. Firefighters had to rescue people from both the store and the apartment building above the store. MDA EMTs and paramedics had to move the injured people they were treating away from the scene because of the fire.
MDA EMT Benny Cohen was the first at the scene. “I arrived and saw a large commotion around a car that had exploded and caught fire. As a result of the explosion, several passersby were injured by the blast and shrapnel,” said Cohen.
“This is a very severe incident,” said MDA paramedic Liat Cohen. “Our MDA teams provided medical treatment to those with moderate and mild injuries from shrapnel and blunt injuries and evacuated them to the hospital. The firefighters rescued others from the store and nearby apartments who suffered from smoke inhalation and were transported to the hospital in critical condition while resuscitation efforts were ongoing.”
