Firefighters who were murdered in the vicious Hamas onslaught on southern Israel have not been recognized as victims of the terrorist attack, the Knesset Health Committee was told in a discussion of mental health care for the rescue organizations. Committee chairman Yonatan Mashriki said: “It is our duty to proactively initiate emotional care for rescuers who have suffered great pain and anxiety.
"In the face of the shocking and horrifying sights to which firefighters and rescue workers at Magen David Adom (MDA), United Hatzalah (UH) and ZAKA volunteers were exposed, and the horrible experiences that were engraved on their souls, it is our duty to help them,” the MK stressed.
In the discussion, it was revealed that murdered firefighters have not yet been recognized as victims of the hostilities. Mashriki has submitted a private bill that would equate emotional suffering of rescue volunteers that of the mental suffering of IDF soldiers. He offered to raise a dedicated budget for this purpose and called on the Finance and National Security Ministries to ensure that the needs of fire and rescue workers in the field are met immediately. In addition, he added, the Treasury must submit to the committee a budget plan for the medium- and long-term so that all of the organizations can get emotional treatment over time.
Rav-Pakad Revital Navot, head of the mental health department in the Israel Police, told the committee that 46 mental-health officers are working around clock at the IDF’s Shura camp, the missing-persons center and in units that have lost members. It has also established a resilience center for the spouses of the police officers and fighters. Volunteers and reservists were recruited and a tender was issued for the recruitment of more mental-health therapists and adding 12 additional manpower slots.
Sgan-Tafsar Hagai Sides, head of the Fire and Rescue Resilience Branch, stated that he was acting alone, and his request for a budget and additional manpower slots was denied. He said he was even reprimanded when he recruited mental therapists at the outbreak of the war. But now, there is a resilience team working at each fire station, after a Civil Service Commission tender was issued quickly – but seven more manpower slots are urgently needed.
Avi Ankori, chairman of the firemen’s union, accused the Finance Ministry of “stinginess” and refusal to expand the budget for mental- health care for the families of firefighters who were murdered.
MDA psychiatrist Prof. Haim Knobel spoke about the plight of the rescuers in the organization who were exposed to the cries and requests for rescue and the inability to send an ambulance because of the battle with Hamas terrorists. “We are making an effort to reach every staff member and volunteer, with a lot of activity on Zoom and introducing workers with people they managed to save.”
Rabbi Aryeh Monk, CEO of Beit Ham, which also treats rescuers and their spouses, told about officers who are ashamed to ask for emotional help and demanded that it be a legal obligation for rescue organizations to provide assistance and emotional support for them.
Dr. Einat Kaufman, director of UH’s resilience unit, spoke about the organization’s volunteers who were kidnapped, and about the lack of professional post-trauma therapists in Israel.
Haim Weingarten, head of the operations department at ZAKA, described the work of the 800 volunteers who saw “that the Hamas terrorists competed among themselves at who was the cruelest – but everyone won.”
Avia Peron, internal-security coordinator in the Treasury’s budget department, promised that the requests of the police and fire brigade for the emotional-treatment budgets have already been approved, but the representatives of these organizations said it was not true.