Nothing Prepared Us for This”: 48 Hours on the Frontlines

When the call came in on the morning of October 7th, we were in the middle of a holiday. For most people, that meant prayer, family, quiet. For us, it meant chaos, the kind that no amount of training can fully prepare you for.

I’ve been in EMS for 35 years. I’ve seen terror attacks, building collapses, fires, disasters. But I’ve never seen anything like this.

Within hours, United Hatzalah deployed over 100 rescue vehicles and intensive care units to the south. We activated 1,500 medics, volunteers, who ran toward the danger, not away from it. Most didn’t even stop to ask what was happening. They just grabbed their gear, threw on body armor, and moved.

We Were Treating Our Neighbors

That’s the hard part. This wasn’t “just” a mass casualty incident. These were our communities. Our own volunteers were among the wounded, and the missing. One of our ambulance drivers was kidnapped with his vehicle into Gaza. As of that day, we hadn’t heard from him.

But even with the grief, the danger, the utter horror, our mission never changed.

Stop the bleeding. Save the airway. Stabilize the patient. Evacuate under fire.

What We Needed, What We Had

At the time, over 3,000 civilians were injured. Supplies drained fast, tourniquets, hemostatic dressings, trauma bandages, airway kits. We needed more. Not just medkits, but armored vehicles. The difference between life and death for a medic could be a flak jacket.

We coordinated with helicopters. We cleared scenes with the IDF. We set up triage on roadsides and in burning towns. And we kept working through the alerts, the suspected infiltrations, the mortar fire.

There were moments, many, where we had to evacuate mid-treatment. The mission always resumed as soon as it was safe.

This Is What War Looks Like in EMS

People forget that in war, it’s not just soldiers who go in. It’s medics. It’s volunteers. It’s neighbors saving neighbors.

And while most of the international focus goes to the military frontlines, EMS operates on every front: southern towns, northern borders, the West Bank. We're preparing for a multi-front reality, and we’re still at it, rotating thousands of medics through the zones that need them most.

This is a long fight. We know that. But we also know this:

We will not stop showing up.

Why I’m Sharing This Now

We’re not looking for applause. We’re not making speeches. We’re saving lives, and sometimes, we need help to keep doing that.

Every resource we deploy, every bandage, every vest, every liter of fuel, costs money. But more than that, every tool we test, every protocol we prove, every second we shave off our response time… that’s something the world can learn from.

At United Hatzalah Innovation, we take what’s worked in Israel’s worst moments, and help others apply it before disaster strikes. Because what we’ve used to save lives here can work anywhere.

United Hatzalah Innovation (UHI) is the nonprofit innovation arm of United Hatzalah of Israel. We do not sell technology. We refer only what we’ve tested in the field — and every referral helps fund lifesaving response in Israel.

📩 Want to hear how we’ve kept EMS running in active warzones — or how those lessons might serve your agency? Contact us.