As rocket sirens screamed across Israel on October 7, 2023, the urgent wail of ambulance sirens joined the cacophony in the south. Dozens of emergency vehicles belonging to Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel’s national ambulance and emergency medical services, responded to the flood of calls from civilians facing Hamas terrorists. International law prohibits targeting ambulances and emergency responders during conflict. But Hamas showed no restraint. Terrorists fired directly at MDA vehicles, shooting at windows and tires and even targeting the responders with automatic rifles and RPGs.

Amid this chaos, veteran EMT and dispatch officer Ronit Glaser spent 13 grueling hours at the MDA dispatch center. She fielded calls from terrified civilians and coordinated emergency responses as the terrifying reality began to piece together. Glaser described those harrowing hours: “Our teams started getting hit. All of a sudden, terrorists came directly to hit our teams to make it impossible for us to take care of patients, to save people.”