Volunteer Organization Extends Medical Aid Amid Israel-Hamas Conflict

A nonprofit volunteer-based organization in Israel has mobilized to provide humanitarian support for those affected by the Israel-Hamas war.

Mike Gerson, cofounder and chairman of United Hatzalah of Israel, told The Christian Post that there are approximately 7,000 paramedic or EMT volunteers in the organization that was founded in 1996 by Eli Beer and provides emergency medical services.

“They’re all trained, equipped and ready to immediately get to their neighbor in need,” he said.

Whenever someone calls the Israeli equivalent of 911, Hatzalah uses GPS technology to pinpoint the victim’s location and notify the closest Hatzalah volunteer, Gerson explained.

“They get there within 90 seconds, and three minutes nationwide,” he said.

First responders with the organization also notably use “ambucyles” to quickly reach the victim before an ambulance arrives.

Gerson noted that calls started flooding in early on the morning of Oct. 7, when Hamas launched a terrorist attack in southern Israel that killed 1,400 Israeli civilians — including at least 32 Americans, according to the U.S. State Department.

“The Hatzalah dispatchers were really the first to see what happened,” said Gerson, who noted that Hatzalah utilizes a technology that allows dispatchers to see with the victim’s phone.

Gerson noted that by the late morning on Oct. 7, Hatzalah had dispatched approximately 1,700 volunteers in southern Israel, and that one of the first casualties of the attack was one of their Arab Muslim volunteers. Another one of their Muslim volunteers was shot and taken hostage before being rescued by Israeli forces, as reported by the New York Post.

Gerson said Hatzalah has already exhausted its inventory of medical equipment, depleting in four days what they intended to use for the next nine to 12 months. They are now engaged in an emergency campaign to replenish the supplies they used.

“We normally have a very careful inventory system, where we know exactly who has what and how long everything’s supposed to last, but on [Oct. 7], we just brought it all down south and said to every first responder, ‘Use what you need.'”

Other organizations have also been mobilizing to assist in the relief effort.

Samaritan’s Purse, founded by evangelist Franklin Graham, is providing support to churches and Christian partners in Israel, reaching out to impacted civilians, Graham explained in a statement last week.

“Samaritan’s Purse has a history of also working in Palestinian areas and continues today,” Graham wrote. “We are committed to doing what we can to help those in need and have officially offered the government of Israel emergency field hospitals along with medical personnel, supplies, and equipment.”

“At this time, humanitarian access to Gaza is not possible, and the border is sealed,” Graham continued. “Our prayers are with all those who are suffering in the midst of this war.”

The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ), a nonprofit founded in 1983 by Yechiel Eckstein, said last week that they had reached “almost all” of the 60,000 Israelis displaced by the war, according to The Washington Times.

Each resident was given “a special credit card that they could use for any of their basic needs, in the amount of around $600,” IFCJ president Yael Eckstein told the outlet. “Every single one of those people and families from every single one of these those kibbutzim has gotten [a card, so] at least now that they could buy shoes without any bureaucracy.”

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, also launched a donation drive in the archdiocese’s 300 parishes last week to aid in the relief effort, according to the New York Post.

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