Magen David Adam requested special blood donations due to a severe shortage of all blood types and damage to the supply to the hospitals, following a violent protest outside the Eritrean embassy in Tel Aviv on Saturday.
MDA's blood services warned that there could be significant difficulty in raising the amount of blood required to treat the sick and injured due to a decrease in the blood supply and challenges in getting the blood supply to the hospitals.
A violent clash broke out on Saturday after hundreds of Eritrean refugees critical of their government protested outside of a pro-government event. Magen David Adom said it treated 114 people, including 30 police officers. Several people were said to be in serious condition.
Following the violent incident, Magen David Adam organized an emergency blood drive in the lobby of the Wolfson Medical Center in Holon and in the walk-in triage area at the Sourasky Medical Center - Ichilov in Tel Aviv. The blood drive ran from 5:30pm until 10:30pm.
Why blood donations are needed
Each dose of blood donated can help save the lives of three sick or injured people who need blood transfusions.
The MDA blood services rely on blood donations from the public and request that those who are healthy and able come to donation points to donate blood and save lives.
For information on blood donations near you, you can visit the MDA website at http://www.mdais.org/dam or call 03-5300400.