'Symbol of Humanity, Coexistence, Peace, Hope': Medical Staff at Israeli Hospital Treats Arabs and Jews

The Oct. 7 Hamas massacre brought extremely dark days to Israel. Yet, one beacon of hope shines bright.

Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon is a place where Jews and Arabs work together to save lives, and where miracles happen every day.

CBN News takes an exclusive look at the hospital's critical role.

Strategically located near the Israel-Gaza border, Barzilai Hospital has treated hundreds of wounded from both sides over the years. 

During the attacks of Oct. 7, the hospital once again mobilized to handle an influx of casualties. And the conditions were more challenging than ever.

Professor Hezi Levi is the CEO of the Barzilai Hospital.

"As soon as I arrived here within about less than half an hour, started the flow of casualties, which is awful," Levi told CBN News. "And we didn't have enough time to go to imaging sometimes just from the trauma room. And it was flow one after one came to the hospital."

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Adding insult to injury, when a Hamas rocket fell short and struck a hospital in Gaza, the media were quick to blame the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).  But Barzilai has been struck twice by Hamas rockets, which have received much less attention in the press.

"But was deeply troubling is that the world doesn't even know this hospital Barzilai, which is so important. No one seems to care that it's rocketed over and over and the world needs to know," said Jeff Ballabon, senior counsel for the American Center on Law and Justice. 

Chava Blivaiss is a trauma surgeon from New York who volunteered to come to Israel after the attacks.  

"The environment here, the collaboration. You have people from all walks of life, and we've been treating everyone. You're not going to hear about it a lot in the news, because for the sake of anonymity, we don't publicize everyone we've been treating. But we've been treating everyone on all sides of the conflict," Blivaiss said. 

The Arab Muslim and Israeli medical staff that was on duty that fateful day (Oct. 7) had no idea what they were in for. But as the wounded kept rolling in, they knew something fundamental had changed. And in the days since, many of them have not gone home. They are sleeping at the hospital, and they say that they're going to continue to stay here and treat not only the wounded civilians but also the soldiers who are being wounded in this fight for Gaza.

"I think most of the world doesn't understand the Barzilai Hospital. Should be one of the world's great symbols of humanity, coexistence, peace, hope. People don't realize that hundreds of Gazans come over every year from Gaza to be treated at the hospital. Arabs and Jews worked together to save the lives of Arabs and Jews together in this hospital," Ballabon explained. 

Coping with the stream of wounded as the war drags on, Barzilai is only one of many similar hospitals working diligently across Israel. But these doctors and nurses aren't immune from the trauma they confront daily.

"I think my fellowship in the Bronx, in New York, was very good preparation for this," Blivaiss noted. "You see a lot of penetrating trauma every single day, and it really just mentally and physically prepares you for what I came to see here."

"About 2,500 people we've seen here. Wounded, wounded civilians, soldiers, some security personnel, etc.. But it was about 2,500. And a very big part of them were seriously wounded," Levi recalled. 

And these doctors say miracles are a daily occurrence.

"They're very much miracles. What you're seeing here, it's literally like things are going out of their way to miss integral organs. People the injuries I'm seeing here, had I seen them in the Bronx, would have been devastating. Life-ending, debilitating injuries here. I don't know whether it's someone watching over them or whether it's just strength," Blivaiss said. 

"These people, every single one of them, they come here, they're all injured. The first thing they do is ask when they can go back because it's really the strength that you're seeing here. And miracle of miracles. We're just seeing incredible feats of strength and just someone's watching over us from above," he added.