MDA teams who responded to the emergency calls in the Gaza Envelope district found that they were unable to evacuate the wounded to hospitals immediately as they usually would, since many of the main roads were blocked off by terrorists. So, with great resourcefulness, they set up a makeshift clinic inside the synagogue in the community of Naveh. They brought patients there and treated their wounds, while remaining in close contact with the MDA dispatch center, with whom they worked to transfer the patients for further treatment elsewhere.
Menachem Blumenthal, a paramedic at the Tzochar MDA station, and Hananya Elmakiyas, a senior EMT, had worked together on the night shift between Friday and that fateful Saturday, when at 6:30 AM, the barrage of rocket fire towards the Gaza envelope began. Minutes later, the pair was called on to treat a severely wounded patient near the Gaza border. Their shift would be a lot longer than usual.
“While we were treating the patient, we started hearing about terrorists infiltrating into the nearby towns and villages. We understood that we wouldn’t be able to evacuate the patient to the nearby hospital, since there were terrorists on the highways all around us; we decided to take him to Naveh, a nearby moshav,” recalls paramedic Menachem Blumenthal. “We arrived at the community synagogue, we brought the patient who had been with us in the Mobile Intensive Care Unit inside, and decided to convert the synagogue into a makeshift field hospital and to prepare to take in other casualties if necessary.”
At the same time, in the Beit Midrash (religious library) of Naveh, another MDA team from Har Hevron also got to work. Chaim Rubin tells their story:
“On Simchat Torah, our team, Negev 72, the MDA intensive care team for Har Hevron, was on duty. In the morning, we received an emergency call telling us there was a rocket attack and that we were needed in Beersheba. Aviah Goldstein, Ariel Hacohen, and I organized our equipment and went on our way. We were in Beersheba and were soon sent to the Gaza Envelope.”
On the way, at Revivim Junction, they treated civilians with severe gunshot wounds who were in unstable condition. “We administered lifesaving treatment, we stopped their bleeding, we applied tourniquets and drove them to where they could be picked up by MDA helicopters,” says Chaim. MDA personnel were at work at Tze’elim Junction, too, giving lifesaving treatment to severely wounded patients and transferring them to air ambulances operated by the IDF’s Unit 669.
Where did the team go?
EMT Ariel Hacohen recalls: “We drove back to the Beersheba area, and when we were at Tze’elim Junction, we heard Menachem Blumenthal over the internal radio, who had just finished a 24-hour shift in Tzochar, requesting assistance from a senior paramedic to help out in Naveh. I did the calculations and realized that we were the team closest to him. I contacted the dispatch center, and they approved our request to join our colleagues in Naveh. Hananya Elmakiyas gave us directions and asked us to drive through the fields and not on Route 232, since the road was crawling with terrorists who had already murdered dozens of civilians.
“We reached the synagogue in Naveh; everything was prepared for the Simchat Torah festivities. Menachem and I moved all of the seats aside and set up a treatment site, with signs indicating separate areas for people who had been injured lightly, moderately, and severely. We set up tables In the middle with medical supplies and equipment. We began to receive a steady flow of cars carrying wounded people.”
The MDA staff realized that the treatment site they’d set up was perhaps the only place able to provide medical treatment in the area, so they prepared themselves to receive the wounded. They contacted residents of the area and requested that anyone with medical training come to the synagogue. They went to the local clinic and asked for all of their medical equipment, and they also turned to the pre-military academy located on the moshav and asked for their stretchers. And so, with the help of the residents, a makeshift treatment site was established in the synagogue.
Security was needed to save lives
In order to protect their patients, Menachem asked for the local emergency response security team to guard the site. He also contacted the MDA dispatch center to ask them to redirect ambulances with patients to the synagogue, where they were hard at work.
Hananya recalls: “Menachem told us, ‘I know that this isn’t a simple request, but I need you to go out with your ambulances and bring the wounded here.’”
Several more MDA personnel arrived at the treatment site, including Akiva Shabbat. Akiva was the MDA ambulance driver for the village of Shlomit, and his house had been hit in the first barrage of rockets. Akiva contacted Menachem and retrieved casualties from the nearby towns in his MDA ambulance. “In the very first round of rockets that morning, my house took a direct hit, which caused significant damage. I made sure that all of my family, who were with me in the safe room, were okay, and I immediately understood that this was going to be a very unusual and difficult situation. As a member of the emergency response security team, I put on my bulletproof vest, took my rifle, and went out to fight. In between the gunshots to neutralize the terrorists, I administered first aid to those who were wounded and dispersed throughout the area, and in coordination with Menachem and Hananya, I evacuated them to the synagogue and then continued fighting.”
“Close to 9:30 AM, we received a report from Akiva Shabbat that he had managed to reach the casualties who had been wounded during the terrorist infiltration at the nearby moshav of Pri Gan, where a difficult battle was underway and that he was bringing them to us at the field hospital in the synagogue. We administered first aid treatment and tried to coordinate with the MDA dispatch center and the IDF to have an air ambulance come to evacuate them. One chilling moment came when, unfortunately, one of the patients passed away, and those who were present with them in the synagogue took a moment to say the Kaddish prayer,” Menachem recalls.
At one point, the MDA staff was called on to treat a patient in serious condition in Bnei Netzarim. Chaim Rubin and his team from Har Hevron went out to try to save him under fire. When they reached the clinic at Bnei Netzarim, they found a man lying on the bed, murmuring to himself and bleeding, his limbs blown off. Chaim administered lifesaving treatment and, at the same time, inquired about having him evacuated by helicopter, but was told by the dispatch center that it would not be possible to land a helicopter there at the time. The team brought the patient to the treatment site at the synagogue in Naveh. “While we were dealing with this complex case, we received other casualties. He was very seriously wounded, and he was unstable; I knew that if I gave him too many painkillers, he would deteriorate, but if I anesthetized him, he would probably die. He was one of the most difficult cases I’ve ever encountered in all my years as a paramedic,” Chaim recalls. Ultimately, an air ambulance landed in the area, and the MDA team in the Beit Midrash transferred him by ambulance to the landing site.
Women in labor also arrived at the Beit Midrash, and the MDA team stationed there treated them and made the arrangements to get them to the maternity wards.
“The situation we were in was extreme. It was a never-ending nightmare. We heard about more and more casualties being sent to us whose conditions were still undetermined. We were using up all the supplies we had. We were forced to improvise. I saw some amazing teamwork and generosity. We treated many patients. We were besieged. I think we made good decisions overall – the decision to open the treatment site was a very good one, but the synagogue wasn’t protected from rocket fire. There was a constant sense of danger; we made sure not to be in open spaces for too long. At a certain point, we also ran out of gas. We spoke to people from the village, and they got us a container of gas from the tractors.”
Chaim describes the sense of danger that hung over them: “I was sure I was going to die. That’s how I felt when we were in Naveh, and every time I closed my eyes, I imagined that the terrorists were going to get me. I thought of writing something. In the end, I decided to call my wife, to talk to her, to make sure that she was okay. You have to understand – I’m a paramedic in the Southern Har Hevron region. I was present at the scene of almost all of the terrorist attacks that took place in the area, and I’m very much used to treating people while under fire. But the feeling here was different. I felt a sense of helplessness. It simply didn’t end. I’ve been in this profession for years. I’ve dealt with many incidents. Usually, when you come to the scene, some people have been shot. You treat them, evacuate them, and then it’s over. Here, there was an unbelievable amount of victims who just kept coming in, and so much uncertainty.
“I remember the woman from the dispatch center reporting over the internal radio about more terrorists and more victims, and then she sighed and said to herself, ‘It’s never-ending…’ without noticing that she could be heard over the radio. It was really difficult – there’s no other way of describing it. When we were there, there was a sense that everyone was working together and helping each other for a common goal. The residents of Naveh made us feel amazing. I was encouraged and strengthened by the MDA air ambulance teams. We came and went, and again and again brought them more and more patients – they allowed us to breathe because they provided the only way for us to evacuate our patients, so ultimately, everything was funneled their way. Everyone who was involved that day is a hero, but in the end, it was them, the helicopter teams, who changed the course of things for me, because we didn’t always have the military helicopters from Unit 669 to rely on. MDA did unbelievable things to manage to reach us. I don’t think I can put into words my feelings about them and the extent to which they changed things for us,” Chaim concludes.
Some weeks later, Menachem and Akiva had the privilege of being able to pay a hospital visit to two of the patients they had treated – Boaz Biran and Michael Gottesman.
Michael Gottesman says: “In those first moments after I was injured and taken for initial treatment, I didn’t know where I was. I didn’t understand that I was in the synagogue. I saw Menachem who began treating me, and I said to myself – ‘God sent me an angel to help me.’”
Boaz Biran, who had gunshot wounds and was treated at the makeshift treatment site, recalls: “I remember that from the moment I was shot in the chest and arm until I arrived at the synagogue, I fought for every breath. The moment they brought me into the synagogue on a stretcher, I remember laying on my side when they brought me into the synagogue on a stretcher. I didn’t quite understand where I was, but I saw the MDA staff, and I immediately felt better; I knew that I was now going to receive medical care and my condition would stabilize. They put me on a helicopter that took me to the hospital in stable condition. It was all thanks to you. Thank you for saving my life,” Boaz concludes.
Ariel wanted to note his MDA colleagues’ inspirational performance in the situation that was forced upon them: “Menachem was amazing. He headed the medical team and all the patients in an outstanding and inspiring manner. In addition, Menachem is a resident of the area, from Kibbutz Sa’ad, so it was his friends who he was forced to treat – and he did so with the utmost professionalism. He’s an exemplary human being, and I was proud to be by his side and work with him. I was amazed by his abilities and those of Hananya and Akiva, who went out on a rescue mission to bring in the casualties from Pri Gan. It’s an honor to work with them. In my opinion, we did everything that could be expected of us as a medical team – it’s important for me to say that. With God’s help, we will come out of this situation stronger and better off.” 