New Bullet-resistant MDA ambulance dedicated to two fallen fallen IDF reservists

A new, bullet-resistant ambulance now serves the Eli community and the wider Binyamin region, dedicated in memory of two fallen IDF reservists and Magen David Adom (MDA) volunteers, Staff Sgt. (res.) Nitai Meizels and Maj. (res.) Amishar Ben-David. The inauguration ceremony took place at Eli’s emergency center.

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Its armor, as a lesson from October 7, will protect patients and medical teams even in complex emergency situations.

Meizels, 30, from Beersheba, served as an armored corps soldier and fell in combat in Gaza during the Swords of Iron War. Ben-David, from Eli, was an IDF combat officer who also died in battle in Gaza. The ambulance was made possible through a crowdfunding campaign launched by Meizels’s family, with support from Friends of MDA in Israel.

Nitai Meizels’s brother, Aviad, who volunteers with MDA in Eli, knew Ben-David through their shared volunteer work. After Ben-David’s death, the family decided to also dedicate the ambulance in his memory, fulfilling Ben-David's goal of acquiring a bullet-resistant ambulance for Eli.

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Meizels and Ben-David were from “different generations and different places,” but shared “the daily choice to dedicate their lives to others.”

Both volunteers had long histories with MDA. Meizels began as a youth volunteer in 2009 and later completed an EMT course. Ben-David started volunteering in high school and served as head of the volunteer team in Eli, also working as an ambulance driver and EMT. "Its armor, as a lesson from October 7, will protect patients and medical teams even in complex emergency situations," said Binyamin Regional Council Deputy Head Amichai Rahamim, highlighting the ambulance's enhanced safety features.

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Meizels and Ben-David represented the organization’s values of “giving, professionalism, and sacrifice,” and that the new ambulance is “a direct continuation of their work.”