As Israel is still reeling after the tragic loss of IDF soldier Amit Ben Yigal last week, ZAKA, Israel’s top emergency first responders, are launching an initiative in Ben Yigal’s honor.
The international aid organization is raising funds to purchase a Rapid Response Motorcycle. The motorcycle is the closest thing that a motorcycle can get to an ambulance. The compact size of these bikes allow them to weave through traffic during emergencies and provide first aid to those who need it.
They are far quicker at responding than ambulances who often have to slow down and wait for heavy traffic to part ways. But the Rapid Response Motorcycles have no such problem.
Honoring Ben Yigal as the driving force behind this initiative is fitting. That’s because most people don’t know the real story behind Ben Yigal’s death. Ben Yigal was in operations in the town of Yabad in Samaria. Suddenly he looked up and saw a man several stories above him holding a massive slab of concrete. Ben Yigal, in heroic fashion, pushed his fellow soldiers out of the way. The terrorist dropped the block hitting Ben Yigal in the head causing him to die instantly.
And so, just as this brave IDF troop saved lives in his final minutes, so too is the hope for these incredible life-saving motorcycles.
ZAKA chairman, Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, visited Ben Yigal’s family during their mourning period and left with some inspirational words saying: “I came to strengthen and got strength.” Zahav said. “When you hear about the roots of the parents of Amit Ben Yigal H”yd, the father Baruch, and the mother Naava, the Zionist education and the faith, you understand how a son like Amit who is the salt of the earth, raised with the preparedness and willingness to sacrifice himself for the nation of Israel that can compose phrases that Amit wrote such as:”
“To be a Golani soldier is to never look back, because you know that there is an entire country behind you”
“Praise God you were blessed with such a son” Zahav concluded. “I went to comfort and left comforted.”
