You could see terror on their faces . . ."

For many Israelis, whenever a need emerges or a crisis erupts, there is one  spontaneous response - "Call Ezer Mizion."

And that's just what hundreds of families did when the Hezbollah began raining deadly Katyusha rockets on civilian targets in Israel's north, turning  quiet cities like Haifa, Safed, Tiberias, and Nahariya and the entire Galilee into a war zone.

The IDF Home Front Command has also been referring people to Ezer Mizion as a "first responder" in times of crisis.

Phones began ringing off the hook at Ezer Mizion's national headquarters and at branches throughout Israel with one message - "We need help!" With the death toll rising daily, hundreds of injured victims, and countless traumatized people, life has been turned topsy-turvy for residents of the beleaguered north.  The by now all-too-familiar whistling sound of the Katyushas has instilled dread and panic in the residents of the area, sending them running to the bomb shelters.

As deadly Katyusha rockets continue to batter northern Israel, Ezer Mizion's entire fleet of ambulances has been diverted from its usual tasks - many of which have been taken over by volunteer drivers -  in order to evacuate people with limited mobility to more secure locations in central Israel.   For people who are blind or crippled,  the terror is multiplied ad infinitum.  As neighors scurry to safety, they remain alone, like sitting ducks - waiting for the deafening explosion.  They can only pray that  the deadly rockets won't strike them.

Working at full emergency capacity, the Ezer Ambulance Department sends out ambulances 24 hours a day to the war zone.   They streak along the roads and highways - generally deserted except for military vehicles - to Haifa and its suburbs, Akko, Nahariya, Safed, Tiberias, throughout the Galilee, even Kiryat Shemoneh, which straddles  the Lebanese border.  They criss-cross the country - Haifa to Ashdod, Nahariya to Modi'in, Yesod Hama'aleh to Beer Sheva - bringing handicapped people, as well as the feeble elderly, special needs children, and high-risk pregnancy women to safe haven in hospitals and shelters for the handicapped and to the homes of relatives. 

Ze'ev, one of the dedicated ambulance drivers, received a call Saturday night to bring a wheelchair-bound woman from Meron to Jerusalem.  He left Bnei Brak at midnight.  As he entered the war zone, he heard five explosions. When he arrived at the woman's home, her caretaker began running back and forth hysterically from the house to the ambulance.   He managed to get them both into the ambulance, drove them to Jerusalem, returning home at 5 AM. 

Ezer Mizion's ambulance drivers have to "qualify" as psychologists as well.  Dan, a veteran ambulance driver, traveled to Naharia to rescue two elderly sisters - one wheelchair-bound, the other blind.  He brought them, together with their seeing-eye dog and parakeet, to a shelter for the handicapped in Netanya.  During the trip, the air raid siren sounded.  The sisters - understandably - become very agitated. "It was really terrifying,"  confirms Dan.  "All we could do was wait for the boom."  He managed to calm  them down while anxiously keeping his eye on the road.  

Yitzchak was sent to pick up three people in Naharia.  At the first stop he was scheduled to pick up a man with an amputated leg who wasn't prepared to leave.  Yitzchak  literally had to force him out of the house.  By the time he had picked up the third passenger, the sirens began blaring again. His riders wanted to get out and run and it took quite an effort to reassure them and keep them inside the vehicle.   

Yaakov teaches in school every day until late afternoon.  At 4:30 PM he turns into a different kind of hero.  That's when he begins his volunteer work - driving an Ezer Mizion ambulance to the north to evacuate disabled people.  Last week he was sent to the Haifa suburb of Kiryat Chaim to rescue a handicapped family. Both the mother and son were in wheelchairs. The father needed a walker to get around.  "You could see the fear on their faces," says Yaakov.  "It was palpable." 

Yaakov helped them into the ambulance and drove through Haifa.  The usually bustling city was deserted.  As they passed the petrochemical plant, they heard sirens.  "What could I do?"  he asks rhetorically.  "I couldn't run."   Then they heard two blasts that brought at least temporary relief that they were not hit, but severe worry about who was...   

Why does Yaakov - and other like him - repeatedly endanger his life by going into the war zone?  "Davka - specifically - because the situation is so frightening, I want to help to bring people to safety,"  he states matter-of-factly. "Ezer Mizion is helping these people all the time. But they need us now more than ever!"