Last Sunday night, a Palestinian woman arrived with her 12-day-old baby girl at an IDF post in the Benjamin region of Judea and Samaria. The infant was having trouble breathing and needed immediate first aid.
IDF Home Front Command soldiers stationed at the post treated the baby, stabilized her, then called an ambulance, which evacuated her to a nearby hospital in Ramallah.
“The baby was suffering from severe difficulty breathing and was vomiting at the same time,” explained the battalion doctor, Cpt. Dr. Michael Findler. “We provided her with initial medical care and succeeded in stabilizing her condition.”
Commanders from the Benjamin Regional Brigade explained that Palestinians in the region know that if they have a life-threatening emergency, they can come to the IDF post for assistance.
“Every Palestinian in the region knows there is an IDF post permanently stationed here that will provide aid,” said Cpt. Dr. Findler. “Such incidents have become commonplace.”
Over the past two weeks, the battalion stationed at the post treated three similar cases of emergency medical care. “Last time one of our paramedics treated a Palestinian girl suffering from meningitis, and in another incident I treated a jaundice patient that arrived with a severe cerebral hemorrhage,” explained the battalion doctor. “In both cases the patients were evacuated for additional medical care at Israeli hospitals.”
IDF soldiers have a long history of saving Palestinian lives. In recent months, IDF medics have treated a an elderly Palestinian suffering from pulmonary edema, an unconscious Palestinian man, an injured Gaza teenager and victims of a severe car accident.