Georgi Guliak, a senior paramedic at Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel’s national emergency medical service, woke up Saturday morning, October 7, and went to his regular shift at the MDA station in Sderot.

Just before he arrived at the station, he started hearing gunshots on the road he was traveling on. Victims, including those in serious and critical condition, began arriving at the station.

As they provided initial medical care, massive gunfire was heard outside. The team decided to lock the doors, take shelter inside the station, and continue treating the severely wounded that remained at the station until they could be evacuated to hospitals in bulletproof ambulances.

After a few hours, Guliak, who was in command of the MDA teams at the Sderot station throughout the day, and the other paramedics, learned that terrorists had taken over the police station in Sderot. In the evening hours, after joint treatment sites for the Israel Defense Forces and MDA were set up, the paramedics began evacuating the injured from the police station under live fire and risking their lives. Some of the injured were transferred to hospitals by helicopter.

After the exchange of fire around the police station subsided, the paramedics and the MDA team continued to provide care and evacuate the injured and deceased within Sderot.

“The terrorists passed just a few meters away from the station as they drove in trucks with submachine guns, firing indiscriminately,” said Guliak. “If they had turned left, we probably wouldn’t be here today. At that moment, we realized the magnitude of the event and that we were under battlefield conditions, at this stage without the reinforcement of additional teams.

“We fought for the lives of the victims in our station and did everything possible to save their lives.”

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