Jerusalem hit with terror attack on eve of Israel’s memorial day.

As Israelis prepared for Yom HaZikaron, the country’s annual memorial day commemoration, a terrorist rammed his car into shoppers and pedestrians just outside Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda Market, the main shuk in the new city.

Five people were injured, including a 70-year-old man who was treated at the scene by Magen David Adom paramedics and EMTs and evacuated by MDA to the hospital in serious condition. The other injured consisted of a moderately injured woman in her 30s and three lightly injured people, a 50-year-old and two 25-year-olds.

“When we arrived on scene, we saw an approximately 70-year-old male lying on the road semi-conscious near the ramming vehicle,” said Itai Giz, an MDA paramedic who was among the first at the scene.

“We performed medical checks and saw that he was suffering from head and limb injuries, moved him to the MICU, and rapidly evacuated him to Shaare Zedek Hospital while undergoing treatment, in serious but stable condition,” he said.

Today’s incident, the latest of an escalation in attacks that began several weeks ago, coincides with Israel’s memorial day commemorations, which will be followed immediately at sundown tomorrow by Yom HaAtzma’ut, Israel Independence Day.

The Mahane Yehuda Market, a popular food-shopping venue among Jerusalemites and tourists, was also the site of dual suicide bombings by Hamas terrorists in 1997 that sparked a complete rethinking of mass-casualty response protocols and began a process that eventually led to Magen David Adom becoming the world’s leading experts on EMS response to mass-casualty incidents.

In fact, Guy Caspi, head of MDA’s mass-casualty response training, was teaching Magen David Adom’s protocols to first responders and hospital emergency room workers in Florida just over a week ago. And MDA will be conducting a series of first-aid training exercises for synagogues and other Jewish institutions in the U.S. next month.

Magen David Adom’s first-at-the-scene response to the terror attack today and its ability to share its learnings with other EMS and civilian groups around the world have one thing in common — they’re made possible by your ongoing support.

Thank you for enabling Magen David Adom to be there for the people of Israel. We’ll keep you apprised of ongoing developments.

Magen David Adom is Israel’s national paramedic and Red Cross service. A leader in mass-casualty response and EMS technology, MDA treats and transports almost 1 million people to hospitals every year; collects, safety tests, and distributes nearly all the blood to Israel’s hospitals; and, through its affiliation with the Red Cross movement, responds to disasters around the world. Manage your email preferences.