Pillar of Defense

Behind Scenes -
Divisions’ Activity
Division of Organization and Administration
• Enlistment of 60 functionaries from the Army Reserve Unit,
in accordance with the qualifications which were required
by the South Regions.
• Coordination with IDF for the release from army service of
75 employees who were drafted under “Decree No. 8”, and
additional 18 employees who were on their prescheduled
army reserve active service.
• A call center was established, for the evacuation of families.
Information was provided to the families of the employees
and 28 families of employees were evacuated from the
South region.
• Activity of arranging dorms for children.
• An instruction was issued to cancel all leaves of absence.
• All Regions were required to submit a daily personnel report
and to enter the emergency task codes.
• Treatment of issues related to stress and anxiety.
Finance
• Listing of the activity throughout MDA during the Operation,
in order to submit requests for funds to various factors,
such as Government Authorities, the Red Cross, Friends
Associations.
• Accommodating families of employees who live in the war
zone, in hotel at peaceful areas. In addition, taking care of
food supply for the teams on the field.
• Extra financing was provided to the Regions, to cover the
current needs.
Office of coordination with the Red Cross
• Humanitarian activity, around the clock.
• Tours with the ICRC personnel on sites where innocent
civilians innocent were injured, in order to submit reports to
the Red Cross.
• Rescue of the Turkish ICRC personnel who were staying in
Gaza, in coordination with the IDF and the Palestinians.
Medicine Division
• Reaffirming the professional guidelines for the teams and
training the recruits of the Army Reserve Unit concerning the
treatment of trauma victims in specific scenarios resulting
from the emergency situation.
• Review and approval of specific professional activity by
individual volunteering physicians and paramedics - in
accordance with their level of professional training.
• Initial response for team members who are victims of anxiety,
or those who are in need of “encouragement and mental
support” within the framework of the First Responders
Project.
“HADAS” - Training and Information Division
• Submitting messages and updates to the friends associations
during the operation.
• Adding thousands of recipients to MDA’s email updates.
• Establishment of an international information and
promotional center.
• Providing information to, and attending interviews with, the
international media.
• Tours in the attacked areas with personas and representatives
of the international media.
• Fundraising campaign, in cooperation with the associations
and friends of MDA in Israel.
• Conducting instruction sessions inside shelters in the South.
• Conducting a fundraising campaign on the web.
• Online guidance and first aid training on the web and in the
social media.
Spokesperson
• Presence in the field throughout the operation,
documentation and distribution of images, video footage
and information to the public and the media in Israel and
around the world.
• Real-time delivery of information concerning the treatment
of casualties, joining communication personnel to the MDA
teams out in the field.
• Delivery of essential information concerning ways of contact
with MDA, basic guidelines on maintaining public safety
when during missile attacks, and call to the general public to
come and donate blood.
The Blood Services
• Training and operating IDF collectors of blood donations.
• Through a concentrated effort, more than 6,600 blood units
donations were collected, 20% more than on daily routine.
• Moving to work inside bomb shelters.
• Reports were provided twice a day to MDA’s management,
the IDF, and the Emergency Division in the Ministry of
Health. The reports included information about donations
collecting and about the MDA and National blood reserves.
Logistics Division
MDA in Operation
“Pillar of Defense”
• Ensuring the integrity of the emergency equipment and
inventory levels in the warehouses and in the Division’s
departments.
• Functionality test of all the Organization’s rescue vehicles and
maintaining their functionality and availability throughout
the operation.
• Functionality test of all stations, bomb shelters, emergency
Dispatching centers, generators and other means in all of
MDA’s stations and facilities.
• Activity reinforcement of the cleaning workers, providing
quick services, support and repair of malfunctions for the
relevant Regions.
• Continuous and daily distribution of supply and means
to the teams and the reserve unit personnel in the South
Regions.
• Reinforcing of the Regions with vehicles from the emergency
storage, quickly receiving and utilizing new vehicles.
• Support of the departments in the process of moving the
Dispatching centers to the emergency centers and handling
the malfunctions promptly.
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