RAMLA, Israel:  As the Jewish New Year approaches, Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel's national emergency medical service, is looking back on a year of saving lives across the country, in routine emergencies and during times of war and crisis.

During the Hebrew year 5786, MDA marked 96 years of activity. Over the past year, MDA EMTs and paramedics were dispatched to 1,911,412 incidents, using thousands of mobile intensive care units (MICUs), ambulances, emergency motorcycles and rapid response vehicles operating throughout Israel. On average, an MDA emergency team was dispatched every 16.5 seconds.

MDA's 101 Emergency Call Center received 2,020,218 calls during the year, with a call answered every 15.9 seconds on average. The average response time to a 101 call was two seconds or less.

"During 5786, Magen David Adom continued to advance technologically and strengthen its capabilities with the support of generous donors from Israel and around the world”, said MDA Director General Eli Bin. “This was alongside providing some of the world's highest-quality emergency medical services and collecting blood units for hospitals and the IDF during both routine times and the war. Approximately 39,200 volunteers and employees worked throughout the past year for the health of Israel's residents, day and night, by air, sea, and land, on Shabbat and holidays, in summer and winter, with tremendous dedication, compassion, and professionalism, and above all, from the heart. Magen David Adom teams continued working under fire and risking their lives, with heroism and courage, to save lives in the best possible way. In 5787, we will continue doing everything in our power and sparing no effort to protect the health of Israel's citizens. Shana Tova!"

The Year in Numbers

Approximately 39,200 volunteers, employees, national-service participants and civil-service members serve with MDA, including approximately 16,500 youth volunteers. An additional 18,000 Life Guardians ("Ne'emanei Haim") are active within MDA. MDA volunteers contributed more than 6.3 million hours of volunteer service. The average age of an MDA volunteer is 26.8. The oldest volunteer is a 92-year-old resident of Ness Ziona, while the youngest MDA volunteer is 14.

MDA operates 213 stations and dispatch points throughout Israel. 

MDA operates thousands of MICUs, ambulances, motorcycles and specialized emergency vehicles nationwide, including:

275 rapid response vehicles, including 50 electric vehicles

117 ambulances and MICUs equipped with four-wheel drive

652 motorcycles, including 116 heavy motorcycles

17 all-terrain vehicles

27 Mass Casualty Incident (MCI) vehicles

42 trailers equipped with supplies for treating mass-casualty incidents

17 Medical Supervisor vehicles

3 Unimog vehicles

5 intensive care buses

10 ambulances equipped with lifts for people with disabilities

8 ambulances equipped with specialized stretchers for bariatric patients

3 MICUs capable of treating two critically ill patients simultaneously

104 ambulances, MICUs and command vehicles with ballistic protection

3 electric MiaFour vehicles

2 electric vehicles for sports facilities

1 truck equipped for staff accommodation and overnight stays

2 mobile dispatch points on trailers

1 mobile clinic trailer

On the Sea of Galilee, MDA operates an intensive care sea ambulance vessel, while an MDA sea ambulance boat operates off the coast of Eilat. Together, they were dispatched to 153 incidents during the year.

MDA's unique mobile ECMO unit, operated in cooperation with Shamir Medical Center, provided treatment to nine patients, five of whom were connected to a heart-lung machine as part of field resuscitation efforts.

During 5786, MDA emergency vehicles were dispatched 1,911,412 times, meaning an MDA team was dispatched, on average, every 16.5 seconds. In road accidents across Israel, MDA EMTs and paramedics provided medical treatment to 67,624 injured people. During the current bathing season, which began after Passover and will end after Sukkot, MDA teams have so far provided medical treatment to 229 adults and children rescued from the sea, swimming pools and other bodies of water after drowning.

Approximately 500,000 men and women completed CPR and first-aid courses through more than 17,000 courses held throughout Israel during the past year. Thousands received training through MDA's free first-aid and emergency building-responder courses held in bomb shelters and protected spaces as part of its public service during the Iron Swords War and Operations "Am Kalavi" and "Roaring Lion."

MDA's Medical Division certified 401 new paramedics this year, including 117 national-service participants. A total of 970 MDA youth volunteers were trained to respond to mass-casualty incidents, 591 teenagers were certified as first-aid instructors, and 190 youth volunteers completed youth leadership and resilience training.

As part of the lessons learned from October 7, 2023, MDA's Operations Division launched Project Magen, designed to prepare Israel's civilian population for emergencies. Since the project's launch, 17,804 civilians, including members of local security squads, municipal employees and inspectors, have been trained to provide initial medical care. Of these, 1,322 were trained this year. Project participants, including more than 1,000 doctors and paramedics, were equipped by MDA with medical supplies, enabling them to provide an initial medical response when necessary, including during incidents in which a community is cut off from access routes due to a natural disaster, war, terrorist infiltration or other emergency.

A total of 18,727 pregnant women were evacuated to hospitals, including 1,399 women who gave birth with the assistance of MDA teams at home or en route to the hospital. MDA operates a project for on-call midwives, in which professional midwives are equipped with advanced, specialized medical equipment and dispatched alongside mobile intensive care units to assist women in labor. This year, 97 midwives from across Israel joined the project and helped MDA teams provide medical care in dozens of obstetric emergencies.

This year, MDA Blood Services collected 281,917 blood units through thousands of blood drives held in public spaces throughout Israel, at MDA blood-donation centers, schools, workplaces and IDF bases. Women accounted for 36.1% of blood donors in 5786, while men accounted for 63.9%. The average age of a blood donor was 34. A total of 46,407 of this year's hundreds of thousands of blood donors were first-time donors. Of the blood units supplied by MDA Blood Services to security forces and hospitals, 9,541 were whole-blood units.

MDA Blood Services operates 24 blood-service vehicles and 14 mobile blood-donation units, including two blood-donation buses, each capable of collecting blood from five donors simultaneously. All donated blood was tested for blood type and infectious diseases at MDA Blood Services laboratories in the protected building at MDA's headquarters in Ramla, the first facility of its kind in the world. The blood was then supplied to hospitals throughout Israel and the IDF.

MDA's National Human Milk Bank supplied approximately 5,700 liters of breast milk during the past year to premature babies in neonatal intensive care units, newborns in hospitals, and sick babies at home who require breast milk due to their medical condition. In special cases, approximately 40 liters of breast milk per month were supplied to orphans whose mothers had begun breastfeeding or intended to breastfeed but died after giving birth. During the past year, approximately 370 new milk donors joined the bank. All meet the strictest medical standards to ensure the safest possible milk for premature infants.

MDA's Logistics Division provided for the organization's medical and operational needs in the field throughout the year. A total of 2,443 Immediate Response Kits were prepared during 5786 by logistics employees and volunteers and distributed to MDA EMTs, paramedics and doctors, enabling them to save lives outside of their regular working and volunteering hours. MDA's Make-A-Wish Ambulance fulfilled 128 wishes.

MDA, in cooperation with Hatzalah Air and Brook Aviation, operates five helicopters equipped with advanced intensive-care equipment. These helicopters treated and evacuated 264 patients and injured people by air to hospitals across Israel.

MDA operates a unique national command-and-control truck equipped with advanced technologies, as well as three regional command and communications vehicles. MDA teams participated in 485 exercises during the past year. These exercises involved 836 ambulances, 229 mobile intensive care units, motorcycles, MCI vehicles, ATVs, Unimog vehicles, command-and-control centers, Medical Supervisor vehicles, rapid-response vehicles, intensive-care buses, MDA helicopters and other equipment.

MDA's 101 Emergency Call Center received 2,020,218 calls during the past year. On average, a 101 call was received every 15.9 seconds, while the average response time was just two seconds.

During 5786, MDA placed 128 automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in public spaces across 45 communities throughout Israel. Since the launch of its public AED placement project, MDA has installed 2,036 life-saving devices in hundreds of communities across the country. In addition, MDA has installed more than 600 AEDs in synagogues in Jerusalem and other cities.