Pillar of Defense

Recommendations

Info

20 MDA in Operation “Pillar of Defense” Conflict Journal | Day 7 | 20.11.2012 | Thursday 05:29 Sirens all over the south: heavy barrage of missiles fired. 07:43 Sirens all over the south: heavy barrages of missiles fired to all the cities near the Gaza Strip. 08:00 siren in Be’er Sheva: 2 barrages of 16 Grad rockets are fired to Be’er Sheva, with intervals of only a few minutes from one to another. 13:38 Siren in Jerusalem: MDA contacted the RC and offered to assist with treating Palestinian casualties. Offer was denied. 15:34 a barrage of missiles fired to the Eshkol municipality: IDF soldier, Yossef Partuk Z”l is killed. 16:12 Siren in Ashdod: a report of a direct hit on a commercial center in Ashdod. 7 casualties were treated and evacuated by MDA to the “Kaplan” medical center. 17:32 Siren in the Eshkol municipality: a direct hit on a vehicle. One severely injured and one Killed. 15 IDF soldiers were lightly injured. 17:41 Siren in Ashkelon: a direct hit in a house. A man in his 50s suffering from amputated leg is severely wounded. 2 more Israelis were lightly injured. 18:02 stone-throwing incident: Arabs in Jerusalem threw stones on an Israeli car. An Israeli woman was injured. 18:35 Sirens in Rishon Leziyon: a direct hit in a residential building. 2 lightly injured, 4 suffering from stress symptoms. Excessive damage was caused to the structure. 20:15 situation evaluation by the Director- General - instructions on continued preparedness, emphasizing 70 km distance shooting, highlights and guidelines in case of cease of fire. No. of Missiles fired 221 | No. of ambulances. Dispatched 166 | summary of calls in Ayalon, Lachish and Negev regions 640 | No. of casualties 103
This nightmare is our reality MDA in Operation “Pillar of Defense” The story of MDA’s worker, Racheli - a mother of 7 children, who lives in the southern town of Gan Yavne When you live under the threat of bomb sirens at any given moment, you learn to appreciate things differently. As the safest place, your home, is not safe anymore, everything changes. The simplest daily operations become complicated. For example, taking a shower: You cannot just go into the shower. You must prepare everything in advance, not only a towel, but clothes and shoes also, ones that you can ware to go outside of the house. You must make sure that there’s an adult present in the house, who could take the children into the bomb shelter / refuge / stairwell, if there’s an alarm, and you have to take the shower quickly (there’s a positive aspect to this: it saves water). We, as adults, can handle it. For the children it is almost impossible. They are afraid to take a shower, they are afraid to go to sleep, they are afraid to go out to the yard. Who can blame them for that? We do not go out of the house unless it’s absolutely necessary, because we must stay within 45 seconds away from a sheltered area. When we ran out of milk, we drank tea. They say it’s healthier anyway. During the 8 days of the operation, the house became almost empty. When we ran out of diapers, we had no choice, so I went out to the supermarket. Twice the alarm caught us by surprise while we were shopping. Customers, cashiers, bystanders, all dropped everything and ran to the sheltered area. TWICE. On several occasions, the alarm sounded while one of the children was taking a shower. It is a feeling which is hard to describe. In 45 seconds, you must bring the child to safety, without stressing him or causing him anxiety. A two year old infant you can wrap with a towel and go down to the bomb shelter, but what about the 11 year old girl? We do not sleep well. We are always alert, being prepared. We sleep with our clothes on, ready to jump from our beds and run down to the bomb shelter if necessary, and lately, this is what actually happens several times during the night. We are the parents of 7 children, 4 of them sleep inside the bomb shelter. It’s tearing us up from the inside, each time we have to decide who get to sleep inside the bomb shelter and who doesn’t. Others have no bomb shelters in their homes, and when hear a siren they run to the public bomb shelter or to the stairwell, within 15 to 45 seconds only. Now, imagine the parents in their Pajamas, running with sleepy children, some being carried on their hands, while the rest of them are trailing behind, horrified. Imagine a baby ill with the flu, being snatched out of the warm cradle and being carried out to the bomb shelter. Imagine a single mother with her small children or a wife whose husband has been called for army reserves service, leaving her responsible for their children. Think of the elderly and the disabled, about the helplessness, the distress and fear. Does it sound to you like a nightmare? Well, this nightmare is our reality. As someone who works at MDA’s Operational Center, I am exposed to these hardships every day, while having my own share of such fear and helplessness: Every day I have to leave my frightened children at home and go to work. The commute from my home to the station is about 15 minutes, through open areas, so that if an alarm sounds, I have nowhere to hide. Unfortunately, there was a case where I heard an alarm on the way back home after I finished my shift, I looked at the roadside and couldn’t find a sheltered area. I carefully stopped the vehicle on the side of the road, well aware of the fact that I’m still in my MDA uniform and therefore I’m representing the Organization. I reminded the people who stopped next to me, to lie on the ground and protect their heads with their hands. We saw the interceptions of “Iron Dome” above us and we heard the explosions. We hoped we would not get hurt. We were lucky. Others were not so lucky. I personally know some fellow workers whom while they were on their way to the MDA station, a rocket landed just a few yards away from them. I will never forget the day when a rocket directly hit a building in Kiryat Malachi; the explosion claimed the lives of 3 people and injuring many others, including infants and children. I saw on TV the building and dozens of my friends, MDA personnel in the field, wearing helmets and bulletproof vests, their faces reflecting what was happening in the scene, and then I received a text message: “the alarm sounded in Kiryat Malachi.” and another one and yet another one. A heavy barrage of rockets was fired at Kiryat Malachi and our fellows were vulnerable out there. Where could they take shelter? I saw them prostrate on the ground. I felt the helplessness of my fellow workers at the Operational Center of - the sense of responsibility and helplessness, knowing that they have sent a team to the line of fire and that they cannot do anything but to transmit the same announcement repeatedly: “Take Cover”... Although these memories will accompany us for many years, today, a week after the operation has ended, although we do not feel quite safe, but for the first time in a long while, the children sleep in their beds, and it was a wonderful feeling. 21
Page 1 and 2: Summary of Magen David Adom activit
Page 4 and 5: “Pillar of Defense” In Numbers
Page 6 and 7: 6 MDA in Operation “Pillar of Def
Page 8 and 9: 8 MDA in Operation “Pillar of Def
Page 10 and 11: 10 MDA in Operation “Pillar of De
Page 16 and 17: MDA President Avi Zohar and MDA’s
Page 18 and 19: Conflict Journal | Day 6 | 19.11.20
Page 30: "After the bomb falls, the personne

Pillar of Defense

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?