Just months after 14 of Magen David Adom’s ambulances were destroyed in the October 7 terrorist attacks on southern Israel, replacement vehicles donated by Samaritan’s Purse, the American evangelical humanitarian-aid organization, were dedicated in a moving ceremony in Jerusalem.
For Magen David Adom (MDA), the ceremony also served to commemorate even more devastating losses the organization incurred during the terrorist attacks, when four of MDA’s medics were killed while actively treating patients or en route to the scene in an ambulance. Another 15 MDA medics have subsequently been killed in the war, mostly while serving in roles as medics for the Israel Defense Forces.
Parked at the ceremony site, each of the 14 ambulances was dedicated in memory of an MDA medic killed in action. One by one, the inscriptions on the ambulances were unveiled, as family and friends got the chance to see and touch their loved one’s memorial ambulance for the first time.
In addition to the 14 ambulances dedicated, Samaritan’s Purse is donating seven armored ambulances to MDA, which are still in production and will be dedicated sometime this spring.
“At a time when the Israeli people — and Jews around the world — are feeling alone, this donation is so meaningful,” said Catherine L. Reed, CEO of American Friends of Magen David Adom, MDA’s U.S.-based marketing and development arm. “It’s a testament to the fact that amid all the protests and the increase in anti-Semitism, the people of Israel and the worldwide Jewish community have friends they can count on.”
Rev. Graham in November first announced that Samaritan’s Purse would donate 21 ambulances, including the 14 dedicated in today’s ceremony, after seeing the devastation that occurred in Kibbutz Be’eri, a cooperative community near the Gaza border, in which 100 residents' lives were taken by Hamas terrorists.
