'I’m proud of my country and MDA. I’m proud to have saved lives'

Yaakov Aviezri, an EMT and ambulance driver who volunteers at MDA, lives in Netivot. On Simchat Torah morning, he awoke to the sounds of explosions. He didn’t panic – he was used to explosions and to the security situation escalating. Yaakov was an ambulance driver whose job was to respond to emergency calls in his area.

“Suddenly, the phone rang,” he remembers. “The screen showed that the number calling was 101. I’m a religious person, and I observe the Sabbath, but if Magen David Adom calls me, that usually means that someone’s life is on the line. I answered the call. It was from an MDA dispatch center worker who told me there were a few unusual incidents in the district and that she’d like to go over the safety procedures with me in case I was called up. These pointers are discussed with MDA drivers every time there’s an uptick in violence, a reminder of our procedures during emergencies.”

But the MDA worker on the other end of the line didn’t manage to get to the end of her briefing before sending Yaakov to an emergency call: “She suddenly cut off in mid-sentence. She took a deep breath and said to me: ‘There’s an incident near Netivot Junction. Get going right now. Drive carefully to the junction to see what’s happening there and report back to us.’

"I immediately jumped out of bed, put on my shoes, and went straight to the ambulance on my way to the address I was given. Once on my way, I was sent more information through our internal system: ‘Terrorist activity – severe injury.’

"The dispatch center worker radioed me, begging me to take extra safety precautions. When I arrived, I saw another ambulance that had arrived first, and several police cars next to it. On the inside, I was calm since the area looked protected, and it looked like everything was okay. I opened the door of the ambulance to help treat the wounded, took one step, and suddenly, we were met with a heavy burst of gunfire. I still hadn’t realized at that point what all of the noise was about. I didn’t understand how significant this incident had become.

"The medic in the other ambulance shouted and ordered me to take cover. While I was lying on the ground, the penny finally dropped – terrorists were shooting at us! – and all of this happened within a few seconds. Nothing will ever be the same after those moments. Many civilians who happened to be in the area were hit by the gunfire. The police officers who were there managed to neutralize the terrorists who had shot at us. When the terrorists were taken down, one of the police officers indicated that I could get up, grab the casualties, and rush them to the hospital.”

Yaakov and the teams in the other MDA ambulances started to evacuate the wounded. “I immediately got inside the ambulance to get going, when suddenly a military vehicle arrived and blocked me aggressively; a few soldiers came out and started shouting ‘Help! Help!’”

Yaakov saw that they were taking two injured people out of the car – a young couple, both badly wounded, their legs missing. Yaakov checked to see that tourniquets had been applied properly and that their bleeding was under control. He transferred the man into his ambulance and the woman into the other ambulance on the scene, and both were driven as quickly as possible to the emergency room.

The horrific drive

Yaakov describes the dramatic journey there and the thoughts going through his mind at the time: “The view on the way was completely different from the way it normally looked: burning cars on the sides of the road; enormous amounts of black smoke rising from fields and orchards; I could barely see the road. And the smell? A smell I’ll never forget, the smell of death, of burnt bodies.

"But there was no time to think. My mission was clear, and it was the only thing I was concentrating on. In my mind, I could hear an internal voice screaming: ‘Save them!’ The MDA dispatch center had already asked the hospital to prepare the trauma room. The entire way, I begged the patients not to fall asleep, not to close their eyes.”

After Yaakov transferred the patients to the medical team at Soroka Hospital, he returned to the Netivot MDA station to wash all of the bloodstains from the ambulance. He then called his colleagues and asked them to join him in the ambulance to help him with the rest of his shift.

Suddenly, a siren sounded, and everyone in the MDA station rushed to take cover in the bomb shelter. Then, there was a massive explosion. Everyone understood that this wasn’t just another successful interception by the Iron Dome missile defense system. Thirty seconds later, Yaakov and his team were rushed out to treat those wounded by the rocket that had fallen in the city.

They arrived on the scene and found three members of a family: a young man who was already dead, and two other men who had been severely wounded. “We immediately started the resuscitation procedure, stopped the bleeding, and sped back to the hospital, but they were in very bad condition. I shouted over the radio, asking the call center to send an intensive care team to meet us. They came to Gilat Junction with minimal delay. Unfortunately, those patients didn’t make it,” Yaakov tells us sadly.

“All in all, we evacuated dozens of wounded people to hospitals, mobile intensive care units, and MDA air ambulances that Black Shabbat – Police officers, soldiers and civilians. For me, ‘Black Shabbat isn’t just any old phrase. That Black Shabbat was the most blood-soaked day I’ve ever experienced—unbelievable amounts of blood, thick blood that had already lost its redness. When dealing with such a vast amount of blood, it appears black,” he says.

“In the days following Black Shabbat, I had to alternate between IDF reserve duty and MDA medical shifts –  between fighting and saving lives. I try to contribute whatever I can, wherever I am and every moment I have. My heart goes out to those who lost their loved ones. I can only hope we’ll see better days, and that our hostages will return home alive and well with God’s help. Elhanan, Orian, and Golan – you’re the best team I could’ve asked for. Thanks to you, we were able to save lives. I wouldn’t have managed for a single minute without you. Don’t ever forget: there’s only one State of Israel; the People of Israel live, and together we will win. I’m proud of my country and of Magen David Adom. I’m proud to be able to save lives.”