“I am proud of my country and of MDA. I am proud to save lives”

MDA volunteer, EMT and ambulance driver Yaakov Aviezri lives in Netivot. On the morning of October 7, he woke up to the sound of explosions but was not frightened, as he was accustomed to rocket attacks from Gaza and to the sound of explosions. Yaakov served as a drive in an MDA ambulance designed to respond to emergency calls in his vicinity.

“Suddenly my phone rang,” he recalls, “and 101 appeared on the monitor. I’m a religious person who observes Shabbat, but if someone calls from Magen David Adom, it’s probably a case of saving a life. I answered the call. On the other end, an MDA dispatcher kindly told me that there were some unusual incidents in the sector and that she wanted to review safety procedures with me in case of a dispatch. These instructions are conveyed to MDA drivers every time the security situation escalates, a kind of honing the procedures during an emergency.” However, before the MDA dispatcher finished the safety briefing, Yaakov was called to an emergency. “Her sentence was suddenly interrupted; she took a breath and told me: ‘There is an unusual incident in the Netivot Junction area. Go right now. Carefully see what’s happening at the junction and give a report.’ I immediately jumped out of bed, put on my shoes and rushed to the ambulance. On the way, I receive information about the incident: ‘Hostile terrorist activity – serious sabotage.’ The call center contacted me through the radio and urged me to be extra cautious. When I got to the address, I saw the first ambulance that arrived at the scene, with several police cars next to it. I felt calm, since the area seemed to be protected and everything seemed to be fine. I opened the ambulance door to get out and help treat the wounded, but after taking only one step, I suddenly heard heavy gunfire in our direction. At the time, I still hadn’t really grasped what the noises meant, and I didn’t understand the magnitude of the event. The EMT in the other ambulance shouted and ordered me to take cover, and as I lay on the floor, I finally began to realize that terrorists were shooting at us! All of this happened in a matter of seconds. Many civilians in the area were wounded by the shooting. The policemen who were there managed to neutralize the terrorists who fired at us. When the terrorists were killed, one of the policemen signaled to me to get up, take the wounded and rush with them to the hospital.”

Yaakov and the teams in the other MDA ambulances began to evacuate the wounded. “I immediately got into the ambulance to start the evacuation, but then a military vehicle came and aggressively blocked me, and some soldiers got out and shouted: ‘Help! Help!’” Yaakov noticed that the soldiers were taking out two wounded people from the vehicle – a young couple, both severely wounded, with missing limbs. Yaakov made sure that the tourniquets were properly placed on their legs and that their bleeding was under control. He put the man in his ambulance and the woman in the other ambulance and they were taken to the emergency room as quickly as possible. Yaakov describes the road and the thoughts during the dramatic evacuation: “The view along the road was radically different than usual. There were burning vehicles on the sides of the road. Huge amounts of black smoke rose from the fields and the orchards. I could barely see where I was going. And the smell? It was a smell I’ll never forget, the smell of death, of burned bodies, but there was no time to think. My goal was clear, and I was focused on only one thing. There was an inner voice echoing in my head that cried out, ‘Save them.’ The MDA call center has already asked the hospital to prepare the trauma room. All the way I begged the wounded not to fall asleep, not to close their eyes!”  

After Yaakov handed over the wounded to the medical staff at Soroka Hospital, he returned to the Netivot Station to wash the ambulance of all the blood in it, and then called his friends and asked them to join his ambulance to help treat and evacuate more victims. Suddenly, a Red Alert siren sounded and just after the MDA teams ran to the protected area of the Netivot Station, they heard a powerful explosion. Everyone realized that this was not another Iron Dome interception. Half a minute later, Yaakov’s team was dispatched to treat the wounded after a rocket landed in the city. There were three victims from the same family:  one young man who was dead and two other men in serious condition.  “We immediately carried out lifesaving procedures, stopped the bleeding and rushed them to the hospital, but their condition was very serious! I used the radio and asked the call center to send an intensive care team to meet us on the way. The met us at Gilat Junction, with minimal delay, but unfortunately the two men did not survive,” Yaakov says sadly.

“All in all, on October 7 we evacuated dozens of wounded, with varying degrees of injuries, to hospitals, intensive care units and Magen David Adom helicopters. They were policemen, soldiers and civilians. For me, October 7 was the bloodiest day I’ve ever experienced. Huge amounts of blood, thick blood, which has already lost its red color. In such amounts, the blood already looks black,” he says. “During the next few days, I continued to juggle my IDF reserve duty with MDA shifts, maneuvering between fighting and saving lives. I try to contribute wherever I can and in every moment I have. I share in the grief of those who have lost their loved ones. I hope that we will see better days, that all the hostages will return safe and sound, with God’s help. Elhanan, Orian and Golan, you are the best team I could ask for. Thanks to you, we managed to save lives! I couldn’t manage one minute without you. Do not forget: there is only one Israel, Am Israel Chai (the people of Israel live), and together we will win. I am proud of my country and of MDA. I am proud to save lives.”