Kibbutz Kfar Aza

“My house has become an emergency room” 

Omer Caspi, an MDA worker in the Lachish district, lives in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, which was severely damaged on October 7: “At 6:28 a.m., I woke up to a barrage of rockets. After a while, it turned out to be a much bigger event, and at a certain point I went outside and saw soldiers fighting for my home, the kibbutz.

I shouted to them: ‘I’m a medic. If there are casualties, bring them to me.’ Terrorists infiltrated the house of friends of my family. They had locked themselves in the safe room and the father held the doorknob of the safe room’s door. The terrorists attached an explosive device to the door, which severely wounded the father in his hands and chest. The family improvised a tourniquet from a phone charger until soldiers arrived and gave them standard tourniquets. When it was possible, they brought him to me. I treated him and from that moment my house became a kind of emergency room.”

Omer’s MDA motorcycle, which he used in his role as an MDA emergency first responder, was hit by the terrorists. “They dismantled it,” Omer says, “and stole all the equipment.” Omer remembers that a special IDF unit brought their commander to his house after he was shot and critically wounded. While one soldier put pressure on the wound to stop the bleeding, Omer performed life-saving treatments. Together they loaded the wounded commander onto a vehicle to evacuate him to a helicopter. On the way, terrorists fired at them from a van. The soldier who was pressing on the bleeding and the wounded commander were both killed.

All that night until dawn, Omer stayed at the gas station near the kibbutz to continue saving lives. At one point, he heard a plea – to which no MDA member could remain indifferent – “I heard, ‘medic, medic.’ Soldiers from special units came and transferred wounded soldiers to me. Of course I treated them.”

The wounded man he treated in his living room, a family friend, survived the serious injury and is currently undergoing rehabilitation. “I told him at the time: ‘You can’t die, you need to help me clean up all the blood you left in my house… ׳”