“I bandaged myself quickly and continued to treat others”

Rafi Samet, an EMT and MDA ambulance driver,was at his home in Kibbutz Kissufim when the events of October 7 broke out. He says: “On Friday evening I was on call and parked the ambulance near my house. At 6:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, ‘Red Alert’ sirens sounded. I got dressed quickly and got ready to leave in the event that a rocket hits our community. That’s how it is in normal times – we wait for the rockets to stop and go out to search for the wounded.” But this time, as everyone now knows, was different.

“We started hearing rockets exploding on the ground and explosions of what later turned out to be grenades and explosive devices,” Rafi recalls. “My grandson is a soldier and was at home on Saturday. He took cover in a nearby mobile shelter as long as the alarms sounded, and when he came out, he saw some people dressed as soldiers. He approached them to ask them if they needed help, but they were terrorists wearing IDF uniforms. They shot him and he was wounded in the arm and thigh. Despite the injury, he managed to come to my house and shout to me that he was wounded. I put him in the safe room. Then I ran outside to the ambulance to get medical supplies. On the way, they shot me too. I was hit in the hand by a bullet, but I kept running home. I bandaged myself quickly and continued to treat my grandson. I intended to evacuate him in the ambulance I usually drive, but I saw it was completely destroyed. They shot all four wheels, the side and the windows.” It was clear that any medical personnel who tried entering the kibbutz would be wounded as well. For many hours, Rafi used the knowledge and experience he acquired as an MDA volunteer and treated both himself and his wounded grandson, so that they managed to hold out until a rescue force was able to reach them.