The attack occurred next to the border, where construction workers were building a new and more secure border fence.
Simultaneously, a group of refugees from Africa were being transferred
into Israel for humanitarian purposes. Three terrorists managed to
sneak into the group and began firing. During the attack, two IDF
soldiers were shot and more danger was still possible. While soldiers
from the Caracal Battalion worked to contain the strike, a team of
medics arrived at the scene in a matter of minutes and went to work
treating the victims. One of the victims, Corporal Netanel Yahalomi,
succumed to his wounds shortly after the attack.
Illustrative photo: IDF Paramedics during a training exercise.
Caracal Medical Officer Reuven Haber headed a team of paramedics
responsible for treatment and evacuation. Their job requires them to
treat patients extremely quickly and prepare a helicopter to evacuate
them. Medical Officer Haber, an already successful doctor, had arrived
to the unit just two weeks before the border attack.
When he arrived at the scene, Medical Officer Haber
realized that the situation was extremely different from anything he had
experienced before. “What we do in the field is to take patients
and, at best, to stabilize them. We do any basic treatment that you can
do involving bandages, tourniquets, chest strains … things you can do
in a few minutes,” Medical Officer Haber explains. “The best thing you
can do is get them to a hospital.”
Getting to a hospital for Caracal means getting to Soroka Medical Center in Be’er Sheva, a two-hour drive or 40 minutes by helicopter. In the best-case scenario, explains Haber, the patient can reach the hospital an hour after the first call.
Illustrative photo: IDF Paramedics during a training exercise.
The process is extremely difficult for paramedics who are
alerted to the scene of an attack, since there is only so much they can
do for a victim with the limited resources of a first-responder team. As
Medical Officer Haber puts it, in an emergency situation, “there are things even the best doctor in the world can’t do outside of a hospital setting.”
As a doctor, Medical Officer Haber has an obligation to
treat any patient — even smugglers or terrorists trying to harm Israel.
As an officer, he says that the experience of treating soldiers is very
different, and especially difficult emotionally. “It’s a lot scarier
being with soldiers because [they were not injured] because of any
criminal act. They were there defending the country and got shot.”
Illustrative photo: IDF Paramedics during a training exercise.
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