Two emergency workers from Israel traveled to the Bay Area this week to share their firsthand experiences of the initial confusion and unfolding horror of Oct. 7 when Hamas terrorists attacked Israel.
“We didn’t have a picture of what was going on,” said Zvi Tibber, a senior paramedic with Magen David Adom. “We understood there were terrorists, but we didn’t know the scale. We didn’t understand there were thousands of terrorists. We thought maybe 20, not 3,000.”
Tibber and dispatch officer Ronit Glaser, both first responders with Israel’s emergency medical and disaster service, were called in to work that day amid the chaos of the Hamas rocket attacks and the spreading massacre.
On Wednesday, they recounted their experiences that day to groups at the Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund in San Francisco and at Congregation Rodef Sholom in San Rafael, detailing heart-wrenching stories of the tragedy. American Friends of Magen David Adom brought the pair to the U.S. on a speaking tour.
Tibber, who spoke to about 90 people in San Rafael, recalled waking up in Kfar Saba in central Israel that morning to sirens and learning about incoming rockets, violence on the ground and mounting casualties. He jumped into his ambulance and drove south where he encountered violence unlike anything he had seen before.
Tibber described in detail several victims he treated throughout that day when Hamas massacred more than 1,400, injured more than 7,260 and took an estimated 240 hostages into Gaza.
One woman, who Tibber treated for a gunshot wound to her thigh by tying it with a tourniquet, was attending the Nova music festival when Hamas attacked. She and her boyfriend had taken refuge in a shelter that terrorists set on fire, suffocating them with smoke. When the woman attempted to exit the shelter for fresh air, she was shot by Hamas. Her boyfriend pulled her back into the shelter, where they stayed out of the gunfire until they couldn’t hold out any longer.
The pair had to make a run for it through the flames, suffering severe burns, before eventually reaching Tibber and his ambulance.
“I remember her name was Eden, like the garden of Eden,” said Tibber. “Straight out of hell I had to take her.”
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