At dawn on that Saturday, when sirens warning of incoming rockets sounded throughout Israel, the men and women of Magen David Adom were on the scene, risking their lives, directly confronting the horror, fighting to rescue the wounded – and saving lives.

MDA’s story on October 7 and throughout the Swords of Iron War is not a single linear narrative. Rather, it is many stories, hundreds of stories, that are connected to each other. Some MDA men and women who lived in the Gaza Envelope or nearby communities – such as Be’eri, Sufa, Sa’ad, Ofakim and Sderot – found themselves under attack and responded bravely. Some of them were wounded, and others were killed. Where needed, MDA personnel set up improvised emergency treatment sites – at MDA stations, at junctions and even in their living rooms. MDA stations from all over the country dispatched staff to help out in the area that was attacked; and the men and women at MDA’s emergency call centers, who responded to thousands of phone calls from people needing urgent help, were directly exposed to the horrors through the calls they handled, often providing lifesaving instructions and dispatching teams while wiping away tears. There were those who provided valuable reinforcement for the blood collection operations, the Milk Bank and logistics. Moreover, many MDA men and women were drafted into the reserves, and actively took part in defending the country. Together, they all constituted the response by Magen David Adom, Israel’s national rescue organization, to one of the greatest disasters in the history of the State of Israel.

Most MDA personnel do not see their actions as remarkable, therefore the stories presented here are only a fraction of the actions and a few of the reactions of Magen David Adom to those events.

A little light dispels much darkness.