Two months ago, the Southern Brigade of the IDF's Gaza Division launched an initiative to provide first-aid training to adults and children living in Israeli communities next to the Gaza Strip, communities that bear the brunt of the aggression from Gaza.
The project is the brainchild of Lt. Ariel Bar David, a medical officer in the Southern Brigade.
"We looked for volunteer opportunities for our soldiers, and we decided that our volunteer work will be related to the community in the area we're defending," he said.
"We come to communities near Gaza and share the knowledge we've acquired so every one of them can save lives.
"The first training session was held at Sde Avraham [a moshav in the northwestern Negev Desert]. Children and adults came, and it was exciting. They shared the knowledge with their families. It gave the soldiers a lot of satisfaction."
The training sessions are now resuming after being frozen following a recent rise in violence on the Gaza border. The IDF works in conjunction with the security supervisors at each community, who welcome the initiative.
"Ariel proposed the training and we worked together to promote it on the moshav," said Dan Asulin, the chief security officer at Moshav Mivtachim.
"It's another example of the strong ties between the Southern Brigade and the communities in the Eshkol Regional Council. The [IDF] team came to provide us with a few hours of professional, focused first-aid training. The training was open to everyone. Ultimately, this is knowledge that could save anyone's life.
"It's vital to make this information accessible to the residents [living near Gaza], because we might be called upon to provide a first response before rescue teams have a chance to arrive. It's a welcome initiative for cooperation between the army and the communities along the Gaza Strip," Asulin said.
