Stories From the Streets: Car Bomb Hurts Mother, Toddler

On a recent Tuesday morning around 8 AM, a car exploded on Carmel Street in Rehovot, seemingly caused by a remotely activated bomb placed on the vehicle. The explosion sent its two passengers, a 30-year-old pregnant woman and her 1½-year-old toddler, flying out of the car and onto the asphalt. The woman’s legs were covered in shrapnel, and she suffered from other moderate injuries while her daughter suffered a light head injury. Miraculously, no passersby were hurt in the explosion. Emergency services were immediately called to assist the mother and daughter.

United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Yonatan Sasi was only a kilometer from the scene. He had just dropped his children off at school and was on his way to work. He sped off on his ambucycle and arrived within 60 seconds of receiving the emergency alert on his communication device.

Sasi was the first medical responder at the scene. He found the woman lying alongside the destroyed vehicle, screaming and writhing in pain. The toddler sustained only a light injury and was in the arms of bystanders who were calming her down. Sasi immediately started treatment, focusing on the mother, who was more severely injured. He cleaned and bandaged her open wounds to stem the bleeding and stabilized her neck and spine with c-spine immobilization to prevent spinal injury.

Additional EMTs arrived and helped treat both the mother and daughter. They were then evacuated in an ambulance to Rehovot’s Kaplan Medical Center in stable condition. 

“I am incredibly devoted to volunteering with United Hatzalah and saving lives,” said Sasi after the incident. “This was a very difficult incident to respond to because it was a targeted attack rather than a basic injury. This was very shocking and traumatic for the people injured as well as the passersby in the neighborhood. In general this is a quiet neighborhood, and things like this don’t usually happen here. When I respond to an incident like this one, there’s no time to think; I just rely on my training and do what I can to help save the person. Every second is important.”

Raphael Poch is the international media spokesperson for United Hatzalah.