“I decided to concentrate on saving lives” 

Zvi Reder is a dedicated MDA volunteer who lives in Kibbutz Sa’ad. “On that cursed Saturday, as I call it, I woke up in the morning to the sound of a rocket barrage. There were no news reports yet, but I understood that something unusual was happening. I have an observation point on my roof, and when I looked through binoculars in the direction of Gaza, I saw the terrorists’ vans entering Israel. I alerted the kibbutz’s emergency squad, of which I am also a member, but because I am an MDA volunteer and the community’s ambulance driver, I decided to concentrate on saving lives.”

Zvi prepared to treat the wounded. At about 7:00 a.m., wounded people began arriving at the gate of the kibbutz, most of them survivors of the massacre at the party in Re’im who managed to escape. Zvi went out to them, assessed the severity of their injuries, provided life-saving treatment and evacuated them to Soroka Hospital in Be’er Sheva. “I reported to the MDA call center, I even asked that the hospital be prepared for my arrival with people with gunshot wounds. In retrospect, I realized that the entire route I was traveling on was full of terrorists. Only after I got to the hospital did I realize that I hadn’t heard from my son Dor, who lives on Kibbutz Be’eri and takes care of a child with special needs there. At 11:00 a.m. he wrote to us that he could not speak and that there was noise outside. About an hour later, his brother called him, and a terrorist answered him in Arabic.”

The Reder family did not know what had happened to Dor, Zvi’s son, until the bitter news arrived that Dor had been murdered. Despite the terrible news, Zvi remains optimistic: “After I finished sitting shivah for my son, I went to the funeral of MDA volunteer Yarin Peled, may God avenge her blood. It was important for me to attend her funeral. I knew Yarin as an MDA volunteer, but also as part of the Military Intensive Care Unit. Yarin and the Military Intensive Care Team stayed at our home quite a few times. At the funeral, I understood what a huge and supportive family the MDA family is. I ask everyone to raise their heads; we are the spirit of the fighters at the front. Am Israel Chai (the people of Israel live).”