International relief agencies view Israeli readiness drill

What would happen if missiles struck a school in central Israel?

Eighty doctors, paramedics and EMTs from United Hatzalah on June 2 simulated this catastrophe, testing how volunteers might react and developing best practices if such a situation was to occur. Joined by volunteers from ZAKA, the responders worked under blasts of fireworks, smoke grenades and flocks of screaming children to treat and evacuate 500 children. They employed medical equipment, triage strategies and a cutting edge Mobile Command and Control Center in the training exercise, and were joined by international observers wanting to learn how to implement effective emergency responses.

Delegates from Singapore’s national emergency services, International Committee of the Red Cross, USAID and other agencies watched the exercise, which was one of many tests as part of Israel’s five-day Turning Point 15 civil defense drill operated by the National Emergency Authority and the Home Front Command. The spectators attended to learn from United Hatzalah’s extensive experience in community-based emergency medical first response.

“I am always very impressed whenever I look at exercises like this, because it is just to ensure that the community is protected,” said Wong Mum Thong, chief consultant of Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs Crisis Preparedness Directorate. “What I can see here today is that the players know exactly what to do and I love the [Mobile] Command Control. The Command Control gives very clear visibility in terms of the assets that you deploy and I think that is the most important thing; tracking the resources that you deploy so that you could be able to redeploy these resources. If you don’t have that visibility, you have a problem.”

The United Hatzalah Mobile Command and Control Center is a man-portable self-contained power and communication unit that deploys LifeCompass technology capable of mapping incidents and dispatching responders from any location and under any circumstances. 

“Anytime, at any moment, these disasters can happen,” said Eli Beer, president and CEO of United Hatzalah. “Unfortunately in Israel we are so used to every once in a while having a war or a missile attack so we want to make sure that our volunteers, who are professionally trained to treat incidents like car accidents, heart attacks, strokes and children downing, should know how to deal with any type of emergency including multi-causality incidents. When something like a missile attack happens, the first who will actually save and help are the neighbors and the people around the neighborhood. These are United Hatzalah volunteers who are spread all around the country in every neighborhood in every street so we train them to be ready for these disasters.”

“I always look at community based first response as being the most important,” added Thong. “We need to bear in mind that the emergency response team that comes to the incident site could be delayed for various reasons – it could be delayed by traffic, by many other reasons – so the first person to be on the scene will be the one that comes from the community, and they are the people who will be in the best position to render first responses.”

United Hatzalah operates a free network of 2,500 volunteer trained medics and emergency responders serving communities across Israel around the clock. In recent months, the organization has gained international recognition for its relief efforts in disasters worldwide, including most recently in Nepal, and for developing the advanced LifeCompass platform, which integrates mapping, GPS technology, photos and video to improve emergency response worldwide. Community-based response groups in the U.S, South America, Europe and Asia now are deploying these methods, developed in Israel, locally.