A special candle lighting ceremony took place at the Western Wall honoring the families of Magen David Adom staff who lost their lives while trying to save lives during the Hamas attacks.
Guests included American Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew, Health Minister Rabbi Uriel Buso, and MDA Director-General Eli Bin.
Families of MDA staff members who have been killed lit Chanukah candles at a small ceremony and then went to the Western Wall Plaza where Director-General Bin lit the main chanukiyah.
The event featured a presentation about the heroic stories of three MDA volunteers and staff, paramedic Amit Man, z”l, who was murdered while she was treating casualties in a clinic in Kibbutz Be’eri, EMT Aharon Haimov, z”l, who was murdered as he was driving an ambulance en route to treating shooting victims, and senior EMT Aviya Hetzroni, z”l, who was the MDA ambulance driver on Kibbutz Be’eri.
“Tonight, we remember the MDA volunteers and staff who were murdered by terrorists as they worked to save the lives of others. Amit Man, Aharon Haimov, and Aviya Hetzroni, and in the last few days we sadly also learned that MDA EMT Ronen Engel was murdered by terrorists in Nir Oz and was kidnapped. The four of them were real heroes. Magen David Adom staff and volunteers promise to follow their path, to continue always saving lives, any time and in any place, just as Amit, Aharon, Aviya, and Ronen did.”
“The story of MDA in this war is one of the stories of Zionism, the essence of being an Israeli, and the patriotism of the whole of the State of Israel,” said Health Minister Buso. “The holy people murdered could easily have escaped and not been at those scenes, each with their own story, but they fought and risked their lives, literally until their last drop of blood.”
