‘We’re ready,’ says ambulance chief as threat of Iranian attack puts Israel on high alert

Am ambulance is dedicated to the memory of Shiri Bibas and her sons Ariel and Kfir, kidnapped on October 7 and murdered (Photo: United Hatzalah[Missing Credit]

United Hatzalah aims to provide the fastest and completely free medical response service throughout Israel with their team of paramedics, emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and other medical professionals.

“We’re telling our volunteers to stay in Israel,” said Beer. “Our supply rooms, our trucks, our ambulances are all ready to go in case something happens. We’re going to save as many people as we can.”

Beer, 52, admitted “it’s a scary moment for all of us” but said of his organisation: “We always prepare for a baby choking. We’re always prepared for a heart attack. We’re always prepared for a disaster.

“We go to sleep at night putting our shoes next to the bed, putting the keys to the car or the motorcycle in our pockets.

The dispatch centre (Photo: United Hatzalah)[Missing Credit]

“We’re prepared to deal with whatever happens. We’ve dealt with it before.”

They certainly have. United Hatzalah’s systems were bombarded with calls for help early on October 7, 2023. In the immediate chaos, Beer’s team were instructed to stay away, yet hundreds of their volunteers nevertheless raced to the south.

“Our volunteers didn’t want to listen to the instructions,” he said, adding that they dispatched two helicopters to the region despite being told the airspace was closed. “We decided to go anyway and put our lives in danger.”

Around 800 people were saved thanks to their volunteers that day, Beer estimates. There are countless tales of heroism including that of a young Haredi volunteer who rescued twin babies whose parents were murdered, while another spent 12 hours on the phone to a nine-year-old boy hiding in a cupboard with his sister.

Beer’s own wife Gitty, who qualified as a paramedic just days earlier, treated 41 people including a young soldier shot in the head. He subsequently spent six months in a coma but has since recovered.

The trauma is personal too. Three of their volunteers were killed trying to save lives on October 7 and a further 25 were injured. Among the hostages was Bar Kuperstein, who had not only been trained as an unofficial volunteer himself, but whose father was paralysed when he was involved in a car crash while responding to an emergency as a volunteer several years ago.

Receiving an award from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Photo: United Hatzalah)[Missing Credit]

“That day was proof volunteers who don’t get paid are ten times more motivated than people who do because they want to help save lives,” said Beer.

Today the organisation is a force to be reckoned with Beer having the ear not only of movers and shakers in Israel, but those in the US too. Five years ago Sheryl Sandberg, whose parents are on United Hatzalah’s board, donated $5 million (£3.65 million) to the cause. Meanwhile, Beer said he is “very close” to senior figures in Washington, including Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff and “the Kushners”. But the organisation stems from the humblest of roots. Aged six, Beer witnessed the aftermath of a terrorist attack near his Jerusalem home in which six people were killed.

“People were screaming but I couldn’t help because I was too young,” he recalled. “So I said to myself, ‘When I grow up, I want to save people.’”

At 15 he followed through by volunteering with Magen David Adom ambulances. During one of his regular shifts there he witnessed a seven-year-old boy choking on a hot dog. The boy received CPR, but heavy traffic meant the ambulance arrived too late.

The incident profoundly affected Beer. “I used to see motorcycles passing us to deliver pizza, while I was in the back of an ambulance stuck in traffic. I thought, ‘The pizza will get there still hot and when we arrive the patient is cold.’”

So the idea for the ambucycle, which allows for super-quick response times, was born. Beer started Hatzalah, its original name, while still a teenager, recruiting enthusiastic volunteers from the Haredi community from which he hailed. Things ramped up following the second Lebanon war in 2006 when he realised the extent of the demand. “I decided to open it up to everyone and changed the name to United Hatzalah because I wanted to unite people,” he said.

Volunteers in action (Photo: United Hatzalah)[Missing Credit]

He hopes to double the pool of volunteers in the next five years, though recruiting the right people – and raising funds – is challenging. The role is a full-time unpaid commitment, with responders always on standby to act.

Beer is harnessing AI to bolster their success. Specially designed tools enable his command centre to “predict” where they will be needed. By analysing data from previous events, it suggests hotspots where accidents are likely to happen with 90 per cent success.

The organisation is “more united than ever,” said Beer. Today they serve – and are powered by – every section of Israeli society, including Arab, Bedouin and Druze communities.

“This war showed everyone that we could live next to each other,” he said. That said, he is certainly not ignoring the deep rifts in Israeli society. “One of my main goals is to lower the tension between communities in Israel,” he said, pointing to the controversy over the exemption of the strictly Orthodox from conscription.

“There’s a lot of separation now and we’ve seen very, very bad incidents of hatred and brainwashing. We want to help bring down the tension, use Hatzalah as a platform of unity to reduce the hatred and prevent a civil war.”

The organisation is running a pilot scheme for young Charedis to carry out “meaningful service” within Hatzalah as an alternative to the army.

“The enemies around us are terrible: the Iranians, Hamas, Hezbollah. But hatred inside us is worse,” said Beer. “We will destroy ourselves if Hamas doesn’t destroy us. So we need to fix it, and the way to fix it is to unite people.”