The following story was submitted by Eli Beer, an EMT and president of Ichud Hatzalah, currently in southern Israel along with 200 volunteers from his organization, as well as hundreds of EMS personnel from Magen David Adom and Zaka.

I would like to share firsthand a little about how my day has been here in the south of Israel.

Last night, I decided to go boost the morale and give motivation to all our hundreds of dedicated volunteers down south who have not slept for days and are literally working round the clock. I was particularly feeling the pain of those in the south due to my four year old daughter, Adina. On Friday night we heard sirens in Jerusalem and had two missiles fall in the Jerusalem area. One fell very close to where we live. We all felt the fear of war, yet Adina was in a state of panic. She now cries every time she hears a loud (or not so loud) noise and refuses to sleep in her own bed. The intensity of all four year olds in the south, all the trauma that they are living with for years, of the shattered joy of what should be a playful childhood suddenly struck home acutely as a reality that they have faced for years.

I traveled through Netivot, Ashkelon, Sderot, Ofakim and the surrounding areas treating people and encouraging volunteers. At one point when I was near Shar HaNegev, a crossing point at the border, I discovered a firefighter who had arrived to put out a fire of a previous missile and was now hurt in a second missile. He was lying underneath his fire truck bleeding heavily. Together with two other Hatzalah EMTs; Chanania Liener and Zev Sofer we treated his wounds, stabilized him until he was rushed to the nearest hospital. All this was done literally under overhead fire with missiles shrieking above our heads as they continue to attack mercilessly. During the course of the day we raced to other missile attacks with many casualties.

Just now, I came back from the hospital after visiting Shimon Zaguri, the firefighter that we saved who is a father of two. Immediately after arriving in Soroka Medical Center in Beer Sheva he underwent a long 7 hour surgery on his head.

His wife was emotional to meet us and the doctor said that his life was saved due to the quick response and that he will hopefully recover very quickly. This was encouraging to hear and once again reinforced the critical need for a prompt response.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)