Thirteen wounded Ukrainian refugees were evacuated to Israel for treatment on Wednesday morning in a joint operation of ZAKA, Hatzalah Air, and Magen Dovid Adom.

One of the wounded refugees is a Jewish woman who was seriously wounded when her home suffered a direct hit by a missile. There are also several Holocaust survivors among the group with serious preexisting medical issues whose condition deteriorated after their regular medical care came to an abrupt end in the wake of the Russian invasion.

After ZAKA received an urgent appeal to assist in the rescue of Ukrainian Holocaust survivors and Jews who were injured in missile strikes, they transferred the wounded and elderly across the Moldovan border, in cooperation with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC). The refugees were then hospitalized in Moldova in order to stabilize them prior to the flight to Israel.

Meanwhile, officials at the Israeli Embassy in Moldova arranged special entry permits for the group and an emergency flight was scheduled in coordination with Hatzolah Air Israel.

The emergency flight landed at Ben-Gurion on Wednesday morning and was met by ZAKA and MDA, who transferred them by ambulances to various hospitals across the country, including Shaarei Tzedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, where three patients are being treated in the trauma department.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)