United Hatzalah: A Heritage of Motorcycle Ambulancing

The Friends of United Hatzalah of Israel, that's the name they are branded. 'Hatzalah' is Hebrew, which means 'rescue'. If a life is battling for breath, a siren of motorcycle ambulance (ambucyle) can be heard within 3 minutes. It is the same story throughout Israel.



At the age of 5, Eli Beer, the founder and President of United Hatzalah, witnessed the bombing of the #12 bus. The incident shook his mind. The young boy was stuck for days. The boy wished and dreamt serving people when he becomes a young man. When he was 15, he volunteered ambulance. Passing a couple of years, he realized that the procedures to rescue people in immediate situations must be more flexible and faster. Hence, he established a volunteer unit in his Jerusalem neighborhood, which was inspired from the Hatzalah, which is a volunteer Emergency Medical Service (EMS) organization serving mostly Jewish communities around the world established in the United States.



In 2006 after the Second Lebanon War, United Hatzalah was established by Eli Beer. The prime goal of the organization is to assist more than 50 Hatzalah chapters working separately in Israel and to give immediate precautions to people who are affected by road accidents until the official team (Hatzalah) arrives with ambulance. That is, it really takes time for an ambulance to reach patient, who suffers in road accident, due to the uncontrollable traffic jams. At this time, an ambucyle can work a lot. The ambucyle of United Hatzalah reaches the patient within 2-3 minutes and gives him/her the first aid and treats until the official ambulance reaches the spot.



The ambucyle equips emergency first response volunteers to ensure effective medical intervention at the right time. United Hatzalah volunteers are well trained and certified as EMT's (Emergency medical technician) paramedics or doctors. The volunteers are 24x7 available in service in their localities. Presently, more than 2,000 trained volunteers are working in the team. According to the reports, United Hatzalah has rescued 200,000 people before the ambulance arrived, and an average of 500 people per day. The organization also uses the most modern technologies. This allows to find out the most qualified and the closest volunteer via GPS.



Since the inception of United Hatzalah, thousands of lives have been saved. In 2012, United Hatzalah of Israel was acknowledged the Presidential Award by Shimon Peres, President of the State of Israel.



The organization doesn't charge for its service and it's progressing on donation basis. It has over 200 medically equipped ambucycles and 500 advanced and basic mobile defibrillators. Now the organization is looking forward to register 3000 volunteers in order to attend accidents within 90 seconds after the call.