Pillar of Defense

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MDA in Operation
“Pillar of Defense”
From Switzerland into the middle of an inferno
The say that people in Tel Aviv are living in a bubble and do not really understand the grief of the southern residents, who
have to cope every day with rockets barrages, mortar shells fire and ongoing threat. The incidents during operation “Pillar of
Defense” completely changed the rules of the game, without any warning: the so called “Tel Aviv Bubble” has burst. For the
first time since the Gulf War in the nineties, the residents of Tel Aviv were forced to flee for their lives because of the danger of
missile attack. Three missile barrages were fired at Gush Dan, where most of the missiles fell in open areas, or were intercepted
successfully by the “Iron Dome” battery. The people of Tel Aviv thought that they were “easily” out of harm’s way, but others
had other plans for them. If it was so difficult for the residents of Tel Aviv, for the residents of tranquil Switzerland it would
have been intolerable.
A bomb, a terrorist attack, caution
Lital Boleg is a young woman who lives in Switzerland. She studies psychology at the University of Zurich. She postponed
the first semester of the academic year and decided to come to Israel and volunteer in MDA for two months. She heard
about MDA from her classmate in Zurich, Tali Edjelbaum, who joined the volunteers last year and nowadays she studies at
the Interdisciplinary Center of Herzliya. Lital took the first aid course along with about 30 additional volunteers from various
countries, in MDA’s foreign volunteers program, and she was assigned as a medic to MDA Tel Aviv. On Wednesday, during the
morning shift, Lital was a member of the response team which handled the terrorist attack on a bus in central Tel Aviv. “As we
were coming out of the hospital, after the evacuation of a patient, we received a call. Although my Hebrew has improved a
lot over the last month and a half I spent in MDA, it is not my mother tongue. Usually I can understand and talk freely with the
team. This time I really could not understand what they were saying on the radio transmitter. The dispatcher spoke quickly
and emotionally. But looking at the worried face of the driver was enough for me to understand that something was very
wrong. The driver told us there had been a terrorist attack on a bus. I did not know how to react. We drove to the scene as
quickly as possible. When we arrived on the scene, all we saw was turmoil and much tension. Many people running in every
direction, the wounded lying on the road, police officers, security guards, soldiers and MDA teams, all shouting different
things in Hebrew. Unfortunately, I could not understand them. Here and there, I managed to recognize random words I know:
“Pzaza”, “Pigu’a”, “Zehirut”, “Titrachaku” “Kanir’eh She’yesh Mit’an Nosaf” [Translator’s remark: “Bomb”, “Terrorist attack”, “Caution”,
“Stay away”, “It looks like there’s another bomb”]. I did not know what to do, I just saw the exploded bus, parts of which were
scattered on the ground and shards of broken glass were scattered everywhere.”
Operating automatically
“After the initial moments of shock, I immediately recovered. We took all the equipment out of the ambulance and began to
provide the wounded with medical treatment. Our patient suffered a hand injury and had shards of glass in his head. We took
him to the ambulance, where we Dispatchingled his bleeding and quickly evacuated him to the hospital. I sat in the back
seat of the ambulance and I could not stop shaking, I felt the adrenaline rush going through my body. Only after the end of
the incident, I realized what had actually happened. Just a few moments ago, I was standing at the point where an explosion
occurred. It was scary but at the same time, it was very touching. Until that day, I heard about such incidents in the news, but
I never encountered such a case. To be here, in Israel, and to feel such fear that a completely different experience than I have
ever known. I’m glad I could be there to help; there’s no doubt in my mind that I would be willing to do it again.”
In the terrorist bombing of the bus at King Saul Boulevard in Tel Aviv, 17 people were injured, among whom,
1 was moderately to seriously injured, 3 moderately injured, 7 slightly injured and 6 suffered from anxiety.