Last month, tensions between Israeli Jews and Arabs culminated in a series of violent outbursts throughout Israel, including in Lod, a mixed city in central Israel; in Rahat, a Bedouin city in the south; Dimona; and Ashkelon, a coastal city near the Gaza Stip.
At the same time, Israel was barraged by rockets and mortars from Gaza. More than 4,300 were fired into Israel, killing 11 people and injuring several hundred.
For Magen David Adom (MDA) paramedics and EMTs, treating the wounded under fire is not new, but for the first time their lives were also threatened by domestic rioters as they worked to save people from mob stonings, shootings, as well as rocket attacks.
Violence Breaks out in Lod
MDA paramedic Yuval Eran and his staff were on their way to an emergency call in Lod for a patient suffering from shortness of breath. Stopped by police at an improvised checkpoint, they were led to a man who had been shot in his car by an Arab crowd. Yuval immediately stopped the bleeding and provided him lifesaving treatment. Suddenly, an alarm sounded signaling a pending rocket attack.
Yuval and his team carried the patient into a shelter, providing the man with Yuval’s own protective vest. After the barrage of rockets ended, the caregivers began the urgent evacuation to the hospital.
Along the way, the wounded man said that Arab rioters ambushed the security forces, and if the ambulance had not stopped at the checkpoint, chances are it would have passed through the line of fire.
Yuval and his team continued to treat other wounded casualties that night in a series of events, while under constant rocket attack.
“It was a very tough night,” said Yuval. “There is no doubt that this is a shift we will remember for a long time.”
Deadly Stones in Dimona
“I started the night shift at the MDA station in Dimona and received a call about a bus returning to Dimona from Jerusalem,” recalled Eliosef Elmaleh. “Due to disturbances, the bus driver took an alternate route and came across a road barrier erected by Arab stone-throwing rioters.
“Six students and two adults were injured. Most of them suffered from abrasions as a result of the stones and shattered glass shards from the bus windows.”
As the injured were being treated and evacuated to the hospital, MDA received a call about a vehicle being pummeled with stones by Arab rioters.
“We were on our way back to Beer-Sheva” from the Dead Sea, said Avichai Marciano, the driver of the besieged car. “Near Abu Kaf, we saw burning tires on the road and about 30 young people around them. As we approached the place they started throwing stones at the car. The windows shattered; I slowed down and then they just mobbed the vehicle.
“One of the young men clinging to my window broke it with a rock that hit my face. He kept hitting me in the head and jaw with the rock. These were moments of horror; it was impossible to know where it would go. I pled with them, ‘do not kill us,’ but they did not care.”
Avichai managed to call the police from his mobile phone. “I was told that in a few minutes a mobile emergency unit would arrive. I drove forward; I tried to escape, but we could not get away.”
When EMTs Avi Harosh and Baruch Garamay arrived at the scene, they realized the driver and passenger were surrounded by the angry mob and couldn’t get close. And the police had erected a barrier, not allowing them access. Avi knew if he did not rush into the melee, even at his own risk, there was a good chance the driver and passenger would be killed.
With stones being hurled and crowds rushing toward him, he made his way to the occupants of the vehicle being attacked, while Baruch maneuvered the ambulance to the scene.
“One of the [EMTs] broke through and rescued us from there,” Avichai said. “The team treated us, bandaged the wounds and reassured us.”
Rioting in Rahat
Riots also began in and around the city of Rahat, but fortunately for the Bedouin residents and their Jewish neighbors, Ala El-Huzaiel, Magen David Adom’s Rahat station chief, and his colleagues at the MDA station were on guard and helped save lives.
“Around 11 p.m., riots began. I immediately went out with my brother to the MDA station because I knew we were needed. It was very difficult to get there because all this time residents were throwing stones and we were in great danger.
Ala El-Huzaiel, Magen David Adom’s station chief in the Bedouin city of Rahat, and some of the EMTs on his crew.
“After a while, a guy about 50 years old came to the station with chest pains. A paramedic, Naguib Sana, and an EMT, Tawfiq Al-Huzail, immediately started treating him, and when they began evacuating him to the hospital, stones were thrown at the ambulance and the windshield was smashed. Despite great danger, they continued the journey to the hospital.”
Ala and others stayed at the station and provided medical assistance to civilians who were hurt in the confrontations.
“Volunteers and staff at the MDA station in Rahat are Jews and Arabs who, in addition to being co-workers, are also good friends who support each other in these difficult days,” Ala said. During “Guardian of the Walls,” Israel’s operation in Gaza, when clashes between Jews and Arabs intensified, the station staff joined a campaign to spread a message of reconciliation and peaceful co-existence.
Shell-shocked in Ashkelon
After a tense night in Ashkelon that included non-stop rocket attacks and Red Alert sirens that kept people in shelters and saferooms, came a morning of healing. A number of rockets hit houses in Ashkelon directly, injuring 10 people, including four members of one family.
Volunteer paramedic Moti Shuv, a resident of the city, was one of the first on site. He treated a child who suffered both physical injury and emotional shock.
