Sunday , February 1, 2009 - 12:30 hours - East Jerusalem - near the Dung Gate - MDA Jerusalem Dispatching Cenrter received a call reporting a ceiling collapsing on a classroom in a girls' school, activating the relevant MCI protocal, dispatching scores of lifesaving vehicles and first responders.
The first team to reach the scene within 3 minutes came from MDA Old City First Responders Unit of whom a number are arabic speakers, a fact which reduced the children's panic.
After a thorough screening of the premises, about 15 children were lightly bruised and under shock.
They were treated and then evacuated by MDA teams to Hadassah Mont Scopus.
Within 21 minutes all the casualties had been evacuated.
MDA blood services collected 22,111 blood units, prepared and supplied the necessary blood components to the casualties and maintained a national blood inventory of 8,000-10,000 units throughout the operation.
photo: edi israel
photo credit: Assi Dvilanski
photo credit: gadi kabalo
photo credit: Assi Dvilanski
photo credit: Flash 90
photo credit: Assi Dvilanski
In constant assessments of the situation that the MDA Director General, Eli Bin, held yesterday (Monday) with Regional Directors and his own staff after a missile fell in Ashkelon, killing a 27 year old man from Aroer in the south and wounding 18 others, he ordered everyone to be ready and prepared in the event that missiles should land in communities within a wider range.
At the end of the evaluation of the situation, MDA prepared itself according to orders, significantly increasing the number of ambulances and teams ready and on call in the communities to be found within a radius of over 30 km, in addition to those on regular shifts.
The firing of long range rockets, for the first time on Ashdod and Ofakim, found MDA ready and well prepared for them. The early and wide ranging preparations proved themselves successful in the immediate response of MDA teams treating the wounded from the rocket attacks which fell on the South of the country from 21:00 onwards.
Within one hour the Hamas showered long range missiles on the southern communities which fell on Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ofakim and Nachal Oz, and within less than half an hour MDA teams from the Southern Region were rushed to various scenes at the same time in order to treat the many casualties and to search sites where rockets had been reported to have landed in order to make sure there were no further victims there. Directing the teams to the different sites was handled by one control centre with the Director General closely following events.
photo credit: Assi Dvilanski
Yesterday was the first time that a rocket fell on the city of Ashdod, and the hit was a fatal one. A 40 year old woman and her sister who tried to take shelter at a bus stop were fatally and critically wounded. MDA teams who arrived on the scene transported the two wounded women to hospital.
At the same time as MDA teams from the Lachish region were busy treating the wounded in Ashdod, MDA teams from the Negev region were rushed to treat wounded in the area of Nachal Oz, who had been injured by a shower of mortar bombs. There the injuries were also fatal. A soldier was killed and six others wounded.
At around 23:00 an additional missile fell, for the first time on the city of Ofakim and directly hit a house. Well trained MDA teams arrived on the scene within minutes and transferred a moderately injured man with a head wound from fragments and three lightly injured people also suffering from fragment wounds. At the same time a missile fell close to the teams that were giving first aid, but luckily it fell on open ground.
photo credit: Assi Dvilanski
Parallel to these difficult incidents MDA did not stop for one minute it's humanitarian activities, and continued to give humanitarian aid to the citizens wounded in Gaza. At around 18:00 an MDA Mobile Intensive Care Unit transferred a 16 year old boy, critically wounded in an explosion, the cause of which is unclear, from the Erez crossing point to Ichilov hospital in Tel Aviv, after having been hospitalized in Shifa Hospital in Gaza where his situation had deteriorated.
This morning MDA Director General held another meeting to assess the situation.
UPDATE 29.12.08 at 22:07 hours Ashdod: 21:30 rockets fall on City's center. 1 critically injured 1 severely 3 lightly injured & 6 anxiety syndroms - evacuated by MICUs and standard ambulances to Kaplan hospital in Rehovot Nahal Oz: 21:35 rockets fall: 6 casualties treated by MDA teams & IDF paramedics 2 severely injured were evacuated by IDF helicopter to Soroka hospital 1 moderately & 3 lightly injured by MDA teams to Soroka hospital
Update: 22:07
Ashdod: 21:30 rockets fall on City's center. 1 critically injured 1 severely 3 lightly injured & 6 anxiety syndroms - evacuated by MICUs and standard ambulances to Kaplan hospital in Rehovot
Nahal Oz: 21:35 rockets fall: 6 casualties treated by MDA teams & IDF paramedics 2 severely injured were evacuated by IDF helicopter to Soroka hospital
1 moderately & 3 lightly injured by MDA teams to Soroka hospital
As of 22:15 - no additional data
All MDA personnel, workers and volunteers are wearing protective gear and responding to life threatening under fire calls .
MDA is prepared for life saving operations in the southern part of the country, civil disobedience and the opening of an additional front in the north, terrorist actions against the Israeli population, with the use of reserves to allow for regular handling of aircraft crashes and events with multiple casualties.
Even before the "Cast Lead" military operation the Director General of MDA, Eli Bin, ordered the southern district to be at maximum alert, manpower and ambulances, there are some 200 ambulances, in operating condition, in the district. Attacks of rocket fire from Gaza In response to the IDF operation caused many repeated alerts "Color Red", MDA's crews launched operations from arena to arena. The results of the rocket attacks were bad, rockets hitting people's apartments in the city, one person was slightly injured, and several suffered from shock. Shortly thereafter MDA's teams were called to another event, this time the rockets hit an apartment directly and extracted a severe cost, one resident was killed at once, two slightly injured were transported to a hospital, and some 60 other rockets fell causing no casualties only property damage.
The Director General of MDA re-evaluated the situation last night, in his opening statement praised the work of the directors of the southern district, the workers, and the volunteers that strengthened the teams.
The Director General instructed the regional durectors to remain on highest level of alert. The volunteers department was asked to reinforce the dustruct with volunteer forces The Director of the Blood Bank, Prof. Eilat Shinar, was instructed to keep the blood supplies as full as possible and to supply blood units to southern hospitals in accordance with their needs.
Regional directors were advised on how to deal with civil disobedience in their districts and the possibility of rockets being fired into the northern villages from Lebanon as well as terror attacks. Therefore, the northern regions directors were advised to be prepared in both manpower & equipment to handle aircraft crashes and events with multiple casualties. Security forces were advised to immediately check all vehicles that are in emergency storage and all vehicles in MDA's usage. The Director General passed on to the operation officers the rules for hospitalization. The regional directors and the operational officers reported to the Director General, summarizing their operation and the manner in which they will perform all the tasks that lay before them.
MDA's Director General is watching MDA's operation in the Negev staying close to all the ongoing events in that district. The regional directors will continue to keep the operational staff updated to all the events in their area.
A number of rockets fell on Ashkelon construction sites.
2 MICUs and 7 Standard ambulances were dispatched and evacuated 12 casualties: 1 killed, 1 in critical condirtion;, 4 moderately and 5 lightly injured construction workers were evacuated to the Ashkelon Barzilay hospital. All casualties are from Northern Galilee and the Rahat Beduin Community in the Negev.
UPDATE (18:00):MDA: Western Negev and communities surrounding Gaza Strip 27.12.08
MDA Ayalon has dispatched 7 fully manned standard ambulance, MDA Hayarkon & MDA Dan regions are preparing additional reinforcement teams and lifesaving vehicles for The Southern districtm 6 armored bullet proof ambulances have already reached the communities surrounding the Gaza strip.
MDA blood services are monitoring the hospitals needs in blood units and components.
Emergency protocols and guide lines have been distributed to all MDA personnel.
MDA director general closely supervises MDA preparedness and response.
Since noon more than 80 lifesaving vehicles were dispatched to missiles landing sites. MDA personnel is wearing its protective gear.
Toward the end of Shabbath a rocket fell next to a synagogue, seriously wounding a man who was immediately evacuated to Soroka Beer Sheva hospital.
photo credit: Shaked Hadjadj
UPDATE (14:30)
One week heavily marked by a record number of mortar missiles and rockets upon the Western Negev and the communities surrounding the Gaza Strip, has culminated today with a direct hit in Netivot resulting in one fatality, 2 severely and a number of ligthtly injured who have been evacuated to the Soroka hospital in Beer Sheva.
A state of emergency has been declared by Israel authorities in a radius of 20 km around the Gaza Strip.
MDA is at its highest level of alert and Director General Eli Bin is personally evaluating the unfolding of events in the field.
At the beginning of the week MDA will send its special appeal according to the developments.
photo: edi israel
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