Mike Triem speaks with Uri Shacham, chief of staff of Magen David Adom, Israel’s national emergency medical, ambulance, and blood services organization, about what it means to serve on the front lines during wartime. Uri explains how Magen David Adom, a nationwide nonprofit supported in large part by donors, mobilizes thousands of personnel, nearly 2,000 ambulances, emergency dispatch teams, and blood drive efforts to respond rapidly when missile strikes threaten civilians across Israel.
In the interview, Uri gives listeners a powerful look at the courage of Magen David Adom teams who run toward danger while others take shelter, using every
It’s Mike Tring with Crawford Media Group. We’re joined today by Yuri out in Israel. Yuri, I’m going to have you give your background, the organization you work for, because it’s tougher to pronounce. But you’re a paramedic, and you’ve been right in the middle of the fire in Israel. So give us a little background, the organization, and then let’s talk about what you’re experiencing right now.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, hi. My name is Uri Shacham. I’m the chief of staff of Magen David Adom. Magenta Vida Dome is Israel’s emergency services system, which means that we are Israel’s national ambulance services, and also we are Israel’s national blood services. So basically, although it’s an ambulance service, there is much more to this. Because Magenta Vedadon consists of 39,000 people who dedicate their life to go and help others during medical distress, during disasters, during emergencies, and wars just like we are experiencing now in Israel. So if anything happens, Magenta Vida Dom people will be there in seconds or in really very short minutes in order to provide help. And we also collect blood and process it and provide it both to the hospital and to the Israeli army, to the IDF, because life is critical, especially when we’re talking about wars and trauma and trauma patients.
SPEAKER 02 :
I was going to ask, so our listeners can understand, in the United States, there are multiple, there are many, many, many companies that provide ambulance services, but they’re separate and private. This large organization, Israel, has the ability to almost be what we would call a nonprofit here. In other words, people support, financially give to help keep the organization going. Is that correct? Yes.
SPEAKER 01 :
Indeed, although Magen David Adom provides its services nationwide, and if you ask an Israeli, who will you call when you have a medical distress, they would immediately say Magen David Adom. So like in Israel, like the IDF protects the borders, Magen David Adom protects the civilians. Nevertheless, Magenda Vida Dom is a non-governmental organization. Now, this is kind of weird because you’re saying, okay, Magenda Vida Dom deals with national challenges. Magenda Vida Dom provides medical treatment to all of the residents in the State of Israel, regardless where they are, what’s their religious or whatsoever. Yet, Magen David Adom is a non-governmental organization. And this is why the state of Israel doesn’t fund Magen David Adom. And this is why we rely on the generosity of people from the United States, mainly from the United States, to support us to make sure that we have enough ambulances, enough medical equipment, that our people are trained. And, you know, when duty calls like happened to us on February 28th, Magenda Vida Dom is ready and prepared thanks to our supporters all around the world and especially from the States.
SPEAKER 02 :
So good. Yeah, I want people to understand that. So tell us, it has become, I mean, the Iran war has changed things for you. So I can’t even begin to understand it. Tell us some of the things you’re experiencing and what’s happening there.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, as early as Saturday morning, February 28th, at 8.15 a.m., all the residents in the state of Israel received an alert to their cellular phones. Similar like in the United States, like you get an early warning for an earthquake or riots or something like this. Now, this is unusual for the people of Israel because for years… And this actually signaled us that Israel, together with the United States, are attacking the terrible regime in Iran. Now, Magen David Adom, as I mentioned, we were like in a very high alert status. And we immediately manned the entire fleet of almost 2,000 ambulances and other rescue vehicles. we reinforced, we had more people coming to the emergency dispatch centers in order to be able to receive calls if and when an Iranian attack would start. And we immediately launched a national blood drive campaign because the inventory of blood has to be raised once a war breaks in order to be prepared to provide blood for injured people. Now, about two hours after the initial attack, Iran has started shooting ballistic missiles towards civilians. Now, I know that the Iranian regime are lying and saying that they are attacking only military installations and military bases. This is a lie. They point their 1,000-pound missiles towards babies, towards women, towards innocent people in the land of Israel just because they want to annihilate us. But They have two problems. They have the IDF with its capacities to intercept missiles with the David Sling, with the Iron Dome and all the different interception systems. And they have Magenta Vida Dome. who immediately, when a missile is hitting the civilians, are running to the scene of missile impact and saving the lives of the people. Now, this is, for our listeners to understand, this is crazy. Because when a siren is heard, all the Israelis are instructed to run into the shelters and wait there, until they receive a different note, until they are allowed to get out. But Maguindavidodon people are running out of the shelters. They are running towards fire. Putting their own life in harm’s way at risk. And you know what? Many times they go there without knowing who they are going to save. One more thing that we recently introduced. We are connected to an alert system that is installed in some of the vehicles in Israel. And this system knows to send us the location of the vehicle if its sensors feel that the vehicle is shaking in an abnormal way. But when the developer of the system actually did this, they wanted to warn the car owner that somebody started trying to steal his car by shaking the car or by trying to drag it or something like this. We are using this to understand that there is a huge blast wave somewhere in the venicity of the car. And this is another indication that we get of a location of a missile hit. And there goes our teams to those locations.
SPEAKER 02 :
So fascinating.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah. We use any available sensor to try and be there as fast as possible. Because in life-saving… Minutes are actually life. If we’ll get there a minute earlier, there is the chances to save someone’s life are higher. And again, the people will do whatever it takes to be there for a victim that, you know, his entire crime is that he is living in the land of Israel and the Iranians are trying to annihilate him.
SPEAKER 02 :
Wow. Yuri, I don’t want to run out of time before we have the chance for you to talk about how people in the United States have helped support your work and so many other brave others. You said 29,000 others, I think, right? So you’re part of a very large team, correct?
SPEAKER 01 :
Indeed. So actually, the 39, almost 40,000 men and women of Magan David Adom come from the entire Israeli population. So if I would have told our listeners, listen, a Christian, a Jew, and a Muslim are riding an ambulance, half of the people would say, okay, where’s the joke? It sounds like a beginning of the joke. But actually, this was the beginning of the morning shift today in Israel in the Jerusalem station of Magen David Adon. Because… Because in Magenta Vida Dome, the only thing that matters is one’s commitment towards life-saving. And it doesn’t matter what’s your gender. It doesn’t matter if you think that global warming is a catastrophe or you don’t believe in global warming. The only thing that matters is someone that needs your help. And sometimes it reminds me of the story of the Good Samaritan. that at the end of the day, when you see somebody in distress, you help this person, not because you know him, not because you have any interest of helping him, just because he’s a human being. And we are telling our people the Good Samaritan story, and then we tell them, go and do likewise. Be kind for people. Exactly. Take an action. Help somebody. Now, you were talking about assistance that we get from people around the world. Many Israelis are not aware how much Christian communities and ministries support Magen David Adom. And I would use the… the terrible story or the atrocities of October 7th, just to give an example. We all know the tragic events, murders and atrocities Hamas did to Israelis on October 7th. And few days later, before the days later, at that day, Magen David Adom people has become targets. Although as humanitarians, we are above any dispute and nobody should target humanitarians, Hamas terrorists have no respect whatsoever to any law, any commitment, or to any actions of somebody who trying to save lives. And on October 7th, they actually murdered seven Magen David Adom people while they were providing life-saving treatment to wounded people. They also destroyed 14 ambulances. And a few days later, Samaritan’s Purse representative, Kenny Isaacs, showed up in Magenda Vida Dom offices and said, I’m here. What can I help? And Samaritan person, Franklin Graham, provided Magandavi the dome, not only with the 14 ambulances that replaced those the one that destroyed, But more than 25 armored ambulances, new armored ambulances, to allow Maguindavidodon people to go to dangerous areas, to arrive there safe, and to transport patients knowing that their lives are not at risk. Samaritan’s Purse also gave two new ambulance stations. One of them is in a city that is close to the Lebanese, the border with Lebanon, which nowadays, as we speak, is being constantly targeted by Hezbollah. And with God’s willing, within the coming year, we’ll have a protected station over there only because Christians care for the people of Israel. And I’m amazed, not because of the generosity, not because of the kindness, because I’m amazed how many Israelis don’t understand that Christian communities and Magan David Adom people and the people of Israel share the same values. At the end of the day, we are told in the Bible that the protection of Israel and the protection of life is above all. And I see how Christian communities actually step forward and take action. And they are part of saving lives in this, in the land of Israel, in the Holy Land. And I’m so touched about this. And I’m thrilled to tell this to my fellow paramedics in Magadha, because I think this is the least we can do to, you know, to praise the activity of our partners over the sea.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, Yuri, we’re honored to do so. And we could spend hours talking with you. I wish we had more time. But as we close here quickly, what is the website for our listeners to respond? Do you have that there handy?
SPEAKER 01 :
Yes, I would encourage our listeners to do two things. And I won’t start with the most important, but it is important. Go to savinglivesinisrael.org. That’s savinglivesinisrael.org. Learn about the life-saving activity of Maged David Adom. Learn how you can support, become partner for life-saving in the Holy Land. This is a sacred mission, and I encourage everyone to take part of this and be a partner. And second, which is more important, I ask all our listeners to pray for the success of Magen David Adom people. Pray for us that the Lord will grant us strength, will… will lay his hands upon us and will allow us to win this fight for life that we have been, this battle for the lives of the people of Israel that we’ve been fighting, fiercely fighting for many years, and especially during the last nine days.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yuri, you’ve really inspired us. You’ve given us a little window into what you’re experiencing there and the bravery of your teams. Again, that’s savinglivesinisrael.org, savinglivesinisrael.org. Yuri, thank you for the time with us. It’s been a blessing.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you so much. God bless you, and thank you so much.
