Week of March 17, 2026

Recently, Magen David Adom (Israel’s Red Cross paramedic services) delivered a baby while on route to the closest hospital. Seconds after birth, the team’s mobile phones alerted them to the warnings of incoming ballistic missiles from Iran. The team’s leader, Elad Pas, instructed the driver to pull over in a safe location; they needed to exit the vehicle with the young mother, her helper, and the newborn. The paramedic crew put on helmets and protective vests and shielded the three vulnerable people with their own bodies until the all-clear was given. Once it was safe to resume driving, the mother and baby were transferred in good health to the hospital.

Please pray for the health of the mother and her baby. Please pray for the safety of these paramedics who risk their lives to help others in need.

Israel’s Magen David Adom has 39,000 people available to provide medical assistance, 90 percent of whom are volunteers and 10 percent of whom are paid staff. Uri Shacham, Magen David Adom (MDA) chief of staff, said “Regardless of where something happens, whether it’s a city in the center of the country, a Muslim city or a Druze village in the Golan Heights, you will always find Magen David Adom personnel there assisting their own community.”

MDA had been prepared for the possibility of a direct war with Iran. The teams trained to operate with limited back up and resources at major impact sites where tensions and security were high.  Shacham said, “We expected that this war would be different from the war in June 2025, in the amount of missiles, in the tonnage of explosives, how much explosives are being shot. We took into consideration that Magen David Adom people will have to work by themselves. That means that we will not be able to send 100 ambulances to each scene. So we trained our people for the worst-case scenario. You have to work on your own.”

As people trained to become paramedics and drivers, they had to go through rigorous training with simulations built to recreate the tense feeling during a real emergency. They train in virtual disaster scenes crowded with debris, victims, bystanders, noise, and confusion. They work on ambulance simulators that copy the supplies available and the feeling of a moving vehicle as they try to stabilize a patient.

Their headquarters is found in the central Israeli city of Ramla. From here, they dispatch ambulances, bring crews to impact zones, and relay to hospitals any reports of injuries coming to them; operators track alerts in real time. Deep underground, there is a fortified central blood bank. “We are actually at the entrance to the only blood center in the world that is sheltered, protected underground,” Shacham said. “It allows the continuous work of creating and processing blood even if this location is hit by missiles.” The unique facility can supply all the hospitals and the Israel Defense Forces enough blood products. Immediately after the war started, the headquarters switched to emergency mode. MDA began a nationwide blood donation campaign, able to collect donations in fortified locations.

“People in Israel go to shelters when the sirens sound. But Magen David Adom volunteers go out of the shelters and save others.”

Please pray for the incredible efforts of the Magen David Adom, as they are a strategic part of keeping Israel safe and protected. Please pray for their operations procedures, safety of ambulances on the road, and people who make strategic decisions.  

Since November 2024, a quiet ceasefire has held between Israel and Hezbollah, an Iranian terror proxy in southern Lebanon. As a result of Israel’s pre-emptive strikes in Iran, Hezbollah decided to break the ceasefire on March 2 and has subsequently launched over 100 rockets and drones per day on northern Israel.

Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Monday that the IDF had begun a “targeted ground operation against key targets” in southern Lebanon. This is to “remove threats and create an additional layer of security for residents of the north.” He said the defense maneuvers would continue until Hezbollah is no longer a threat to the civilians of northern Israel. The Israel Defense Forces aim to expand a buffer zone from Israel’s northern border toward the Litani River, a natural division line. This will help to uproot Hezbollah and its infrastructure, including weapons launchers and stockpiles. This will also help to create an additional layer of security for residents of the North, as most of Hezbollah’s arsenal is short-range.

The 91st Galilee Regional Division and the 36th Division began troop movement on late Saturday night on the eastern portion of southern Lebanon. Also, the 146th Reserve Division is now operating in the western portion of southern Lebanon. The Israeli Air Force carried out large-scale targeted airstrikes to remove threats and prepare the way for ground troops. Evacuation warnings were sent to civilians before the aerial strikes, asking them to move away from the coming strikes.

Please pray for the protection of IDF soldiers as they seek out Hezbollah fighters and weapons in southern Lebanon. Please pray for Israeli civilians’ safety, who are under fire from Hezbollah rockets.  

One of our workers writes:

As the second week of the war has become the third week, we continue to live close to bomb shelters so that we can reach them quickly when the sirens sound. The country is operating under severe restrictions: all educational institutions are closed, and people can only go to work if their workplace has an official shelter. Many businesses, especially small ones, are collapsing. Many people have not worked for two weeks, and no one knows if they will receive any compensation. We do not know when the rocket attacks will end or when we will be able to return to normal life.

Despite this situation, we continue our daily ministry and support our people. Of course, we have many opportunities to share our faith with those around us, which is wonderful. We continue to hold our meetings on Zoom where we pray, study the Scriptures, and spend time together. The Lord is also giving us opportunities to carry out special projects.

We continue to provide practical and spiritual support to Holocaust survivors in different cities across Israel. In one city, in cooperation with social services, we distributed emergency aid packages to a group of Holocaust survivors and families in need.

In another city, in cooperation with municipal social services, we provided special gifts for more than 100 children from needy families. These gifts included items to help them pass the time in bomb shelters, such as modeling clay, coloring books, paints, and other activities.

On International Women’s Day, we made handmade gifts and distributed them to women with whom we have been working for the past two years.

In northern Israel, we have the opportunity to support and help dozens of families and groups of Holocaust survivors who are in great need. Fifteen families on the brink of financial crisis received grocery cards from us, along with prayer and spiritual support.

We are grateful to the Lord for what He is doing during these days. Over the past two weeks, we have had many opportunities to speak with many people, ministry leaders, and other organizations to understand better their needs, how we can help, and how we can work together.

Please pray for us, that we would be a light and blessing to many!

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