Magen David Adom, Israel’s national emergency medical service, operates with 36,000 volunteers, 3,000 employees, nearly 2,000 ambulances, and 650 motorcycles. The organization’s stations are divided by geographic region. The Ayalon area spans from Bat Yam in the west to Rishon LeZion in the east and Gedera in the south, with Holon and Rishon LeZion serving as its two major cities. Rishon LeZion, the largest city in the region, along with Holon, has sustained more missile alerts and impacts than any other area within the district.
At the MDA station in Rishon LeZion, JNS met the team responsible for responding to war-related emergencies. Paramedic Yedidya Meir, senior EMT Gad Yair Mimran and EMT Keren Mesika operate one of MDA’s mobile intensive care units. All three have been living at the station since the start of “Operation Roaring Lion” on Feb. 28, serving as IDF reservists deployed by the Home Front Command.
While this is Meir’s first rotation at the station as a paramedic, both Mimran and Mesika served with MDA during the previous conflict with Iran, June 2025’s “Operation Rising Lion.”
