'Since when do people shoot at ambulances?' MDA medic recalls October 7 atrocities

Early in the morning, the Mobile Intensive Care Unit (MICU) team from the Ofakim MDA station team, led by Ofakim station manager Dani Shtarkman, received an emergency call.

“In the early hours of the morning, we were called to treat five people who had been seriously injured in the Urim Junction area. It was still unclear what kind of injuries these were. On our way to Urim, a car stopped me, and the passengers asked me to help a 17-year-old boy who had been shot.

"I started treating him, and while doing so, I tried to understand the circumstances of the shooting. No one was aware at that point that terrorists had infiltrated and had launched a killing spree. The people in the car told us that ‘soldiers’ had fired on them.

"At that point, the MDA dispatch center contacted me and asked if I could reach other people who needed urgent medical attention. I understood that the wounds of the young man in the ambulance were not life-threatening, and I decided we could get on our way. We drove to where we were directed.

Gunshots began

"As we approached, we suddenly heard bursts of gunfire. While we were still trying to understand where the blasts were coming from, one of the windows on the driver’s side of the MICU shattered. I realized we’d been fired upon, but at this point, I took it to be a mistake – that we’d accidentally driven ourselves in a gunbattle and had mistakenly been shot at because since when do people shoot at ambulances?”

But at that point, the ambulance driver, Peter Lasnik, in pain, reported that he had been shot in the leg. Dani treated the wounded, while Peter, who had sustained a significant gunshot wound in his leg, continued driving to distance them from the terrorists despite his injury. When they had gained enough distance, Danny applied a tourniquet to his friend’s leg to stop the bleeding and then drove the MICU to the hospital.

Three days after he was shot, Peter’s first daughter was born, Mi-El, a sister to Ziv. Peter met her for the first time while lying on his hospital bed. “If it weren’t for Dani’s resourcefulness, I wouldn’t be here today, and my children wouldn’t have a father. It is the greatest life-saving gift I received.”