Dovi Maisel, the Vice President of Operations of United Hatzalah joined the special Arutz Sheva broadcast with the Israel Government Tourist Corporation and the Ministry of Heritage at the Burnt Vehicles Compound in Southern Israel to speak about how his organization has been part of the recovery from the October 7th massacre since the war began.
"My son's Bar Mitzva was supposed to be on Simchat Torah on October 7th, and then at 6:29 in the morning, the world turned up down," he remembers. "It was not anything that we were ready for. We originally heard about it as a big car pileup, but we thought that didn't make sense on Shabbat."
He talked about the painful choices Hatzalah needed to make during the massacre. "For 35 years, and through hundreds of terror attacks, we have always had the principle of safety first - we don't go in if there is still a danger. Here, though, we had hundreds of people calling as they bled out, and no one else could help them. I decided that I wouldn't force anyone to go in, but I would back anyone willing to. People at headquarters were arguing over it, but I saw the videos of people trying to improvise tourniquets and asked 'What would you do? This is our DNA."
Miraculously, the bravery of the Hatzalah volunteers did not cost them a single responder. ''I was prepared to tell their families what heroes they were. We saw ambulances being shot at, terrorists rushing them, RPGs - but not one was killed. It was as if angels had come down to protect them.''
Rushing into the war zone, Hatzalah helped bring about another miracle. ''On October 7th and 8th, they saved over a thousand lives. There was simply no other help there.''
There was a cost, though. ''Volunteers are going through therapy. They've seen sights that can't be unseen, both near Gaza and Lebanon. It's an ongoing battle.''
He spoke about the effects of the war on the Jewish world. ''October 7th forced Jews around the world out of hiding and made them see our shared destiny. We need to hold onto that unity.''