Part 1: Wartime Solidarity Trip to Israel February 15, 2024, to February 22, 2024 Kathleen Rusnak and Claire Pace

Kathleen Rusnak and Claire Pace with a wounded IDF soldier, who lost his leg, and suffered three more bullet wounds.

 We, Kathleen and Claire, went on a wartime solidarity trip to Israel from February 15, 2024 to February 22, 2024. American Friends of Sheba Medical Center hosted this trip.  Sheba Medical Center is in Tel Aviv, Israel.

We flew via El Al from Boston. On our trip to Israel, we had a connecting flight in Newark, NJ leaving at 9:00 pm and arriving in Israel Thursday afternoon. It was the only flight available to us from the US. No American airlines are currently going to Israel due to the war in Gaza.

Tour Guide Shannie Payne

DAY 1 - February 18, 2024:

Our program began at 6:00 pm on Sunday February 18, 2024. We met our guide Shannie Payne, an Israeli tour guide. We also had our mandatory security meeting with Avi, a retired IDF soldier. We were instructed that if there is a rocket warning, we were to find a stairwell and stay in the area between floors. It is safe to leave only ten minutes after the alarm stops.

If we are outside, the instruction was to lie on the ground with our arms/hands wrapped around our head. We were told that we would have 90 seconds to reach safety while we were in Tel Aviv and to move to a safe area calmly because 90 seconds “is a lot of time.”

The reason for remaining in a safe place ten minutes after the alarm stopped is that if the “Iron Dome” defense intercepted the rocket, that debris from that, can injure people if they are in its path.

Avi indicated that the time to get to a safe area in Southern Israel, while we are at Kfar Aza, on February 19 is nine seconds!  Israelis who live in that part of Israel must respond very quickly! On 2/19 when we went to Kfar Aza we had the option of wearing helmets and bullet proof vests-an option that no one chose! Security was always in our consciousness.

Dr. Amitai Ziv

A distressing question was raised by Dr. Amitai Ziv our Sunday evening speaker. “Why is Israel hated so much?” There is a perception by Israelis that again, as in the Holocaust, they are alone as they face an existential threat. Dr. Ziv also stated that there is   a struggle within Israeli society at this time—there is tension between those who want the government to prioritize the release of hostages and those who want to prioritize the destruction of Hamas.

For Israelis the October 7 massacre was like September 11 for the US. After October 7, everything shut down in Israeli society—a phenomenon we experienced in the US after September 11. Only gradually routines have resumed. The October 7 massacre has been viewed by the Jewish people as a failure of the social contract that Israeli citizens held with their government. The state did not protect Jews in their own country!

We had dinner at the Daryas Restaurant at the Hilton in Tel Aviv. Professor Amitai Ziv, the Director of Sheba's Rehabilitation Hospital, talked about the work being done there. He developed Sheba’s Medical Center’s Medical Simulation Center.

Key Points

• Everyday about 25,000 people come to Sheba Medical Center.

• At the start of the war Sheba made the decision to continue all of its usual services but to flex “up” to accommodate wounded soldiers and released hostages.

• Sheba ‘s patients have always included Palestinians (20 to 40 percent). For example when the war started, 30 children with cancer were from Gaza.  These patients and their caregivers still remain at the hospital.

• Hamas soldiers are not admitted to the facility.

• Sheba has seven hospitals on its campus.

• Space for returning hostages and soldiers was created in its geriatric facility.

• Dr. Ziv had been a pilot during the war with Lebanon. He had used simulators to develop his skills as a fighter pilot. He wondered why simulators did not exist for the training of physicians. He led a team at Sheba to develop such a center using sophisticated mannequins.

• There was an immediate realization that the mental health of hostages and soldiers had to have the same priority as meeting the physical care needs of those seeking care at Sheba.

Sheba Hospital Compound, includes 7 hospitals, 25,000 visitors per day

• Given that there was little time for clinicians to know how to care for the hostages, actors were hired simulating numerous scenarios in order to improve communication skills of all providers.

• Israel is a very small country. Most people who live there knew victims of the massacre.  

• Sheba has some Arab staff. As in all health care settings staff set aside politics and focus on providing necessary care.

• The attack prompted the IDF to draft 360,000 reservists into active service-that included health care staff. Many retired health care providers returned to work to fill the gaps. Our speaker shared that his oldest son, who is a trauma surgeon, was called, on October 7, to Southern Israel to assist the wounded.

• A second son, who is a psychologist, was drafted to serve in a specialized unit and continues to serve. He has been working with the families of hostages. He is also involved in the process of determining if the missing are alive or dead. A committee reviews all available information to make this determination. Unless there is proof of death, a missing person cannot be deemed to have died in Israel. This has huge ramifications for the surviving family.

• Sheba was involved in sending a team to train over 100 medics who serve in Gaza. The goal of this effort was to reduce mortality and morbidity.

• Israel is a country of trauma. It was created as a result of trauma and continues to exist with constant trauma.

Appeals for Hostage release on every street

• Judaism has developed a robust and intricate system for determining death. In Judaism a missing person is considered alive and cannot be mourned as long as there is no evidence of death.

Stay tuned for Day #2 of our Wartime Solidarity Trip to Israel, where we visit the southern communities that were massacred by Hamas on October 7