“I did everything I could”

On October 7, dozens of terrorists attacked Kibbutz Sufa in the Eshkol region. Six members of the kibbutz’s emergency squad hurried to defend their homes and families, including Ido, the son of MDA volunteer Zohar Hubera. “That Saturday, like many others, we woke up at 6:30 a.m. to the sound of a ‘Red Alert’ alarm, which was longer than usual. Then we heard gunfire, which had never happened before. It turned out that terrorists had crossed into Israel and some of them had even infiltrated our kibbutz. They killed a kibbutz member who was leaving in his car, and shot and killed another member who was sitting in his living room. When the situation became clear, my son Ido, a major in the reserves, joined the emergency squad to defend the kibbutz. They identified the point where the terrorists tried to infiltrate the kibbutz and managed to capture them and prevent them from getting further inside.”

Zohar has been volunteering at MDA for 35 years. He is an instructor, a senior paramedic and even serves as the kibbutz’s ambulance driver. He is accustomed to harsh sights, including terrorist attacks and treating victims under fire. “I came to most of the attacks in Gush Katif [the former bloc of Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip that was dismantled in 2005] with the ambulance,” Zohar says. “I especially remember an attack in which a car bomb was detonated near a bus, a serious incident in which there were dozens of casualties.”

At some point on October 7, Zohar received a phone call. Although he is used to providing medical treatment under fire, and as MDA’s ambulance driver in the kibbutz, he is also used to treating people he knows, this call was completely different. “Someone from the emergency squad told me that Ido, my son, was wounded. I took first aid supplies and ran under fire. When I reached him, I realized he had a very serious head injury.”

With the bullets whistling above him, Zohar dragged his wounded and unconscious son to a shelter in a nearby house and ran to get the ambulance – “his” ambulance, in which he had treated countless people in the past. “I put him in the ambulance and was about to start driving when I realized I had a flat tire. The terrorists had shot the wheels of the ambulance to prevent rescue attempts.”

Zohar took care of his son as much as he could, having at his disposal a lot of knowledge and experience that he had gained as an MDA volunteer. At this point, there were no other casualties in the kibbutz, but Ido was very seriously wounded and did not survive. Zohar stayed with him for many hours, in the ambulance with the flat tires. “In retrospect, I realized that it was my private shivah [the traditional seven days of mourning after the death of a family member],” Zohar says, his voice cracking for the first time. “I know I did everything I could. In retrospect, if I had managed to evacuate him, I probably would have been wounded as well, because the terrorists were everywhere. Any ambulance that tried to reach me would have been hit. 

I have great sorrow that I saved so many people but failed to save my own son. I once performed CPR on someone, and then had the privilege of having coffee with him. On the other hand, I have a lot of pride in what Ido and his friends did. They saved the kibbutz. They fought just like our mythical heroes – few against many, six members of an emergency squad against dozens of terrorists armed with many weapons.”

When I ask him if he will volunteer again, he doesn’t hesitate: “My family and I were evacuated to Eilat, and I showed up at the MDA Station in Eilat to help. I was received with warmth and love. MDA is my home; it’s a mission and love. I will forever continue to volunteer at MDA,” Zohar concludes.