Former Member of Knesset Yigal Guetta hosts a television show on Israel’s Kan 11 network called “Guetta’s on the Way” in which Guetta and his daughter Simcha Guetta travel around Israel to meet people effected by the current war. They cook together and hear their guests’ stories.
In a recent episode, the Guetta duo travels to Sderot to meet six members of the Magen David Adom Sderot team.
The segment takes place in the parking lot of MDA’s Sderot station, yellow and white ambulances are parked around them, waiting to help people. While the Guettas guide the MDA medics in preparing a beef dish, the medics share their experiences from October 7.
Evidence remains of the battlefield that was Sderot: there are bullet holes in the side of an ambulance and of the MDA station itself. During the show, explosive booms are heard, the group stopping to observe whether they are “good” and feeling reassured when they are Israeli bombs and not Hamas rockets. The medics describe the overwhelmingness of October 7, of treating body after body, having to sometimes identify friends’ bodies.
In one particularly emotional part of the episode, National Service paramedic Itai Amar spoke about losing his father, a police officer, on October 7. Amar described how every time he brought patients to the emergency room while working for MDA, he would scan the beds in the chaotic hospital, looking for his father. Amar did not know with certainty that his father had been killed while on duty at the Sderot police station until a week later.
There are hugs and tears throughout the segment which ends with the whole group sitting around a table to enjoy the meal they prepared together. “MDA Sderot team,” Former MK Guetta says to the team, “we want to thank you on behalf of all Israelis. It was a pleasure and honor to cook for you, we hope to do it again in happier days. We applaud you.”
Watch “Guetta’s on the Way” here:
