Jewish News visits Israel’s new Ukraine field hospital

Israel this week sent more than 100 medical staff to operate a field hospital for Ukrainians injured in and fleeing from the deadly Russian invasion.

Operation Shining Star, which will last for at least four weeks, is being led by doctors and nurses from the Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, with support from Israel’s foreign ministry and the Israeli embassy.

It includes a medical laboratory, an X-ray room, an ultrasonography room, an isolation ward, and is staffed by clinicians including paramedics, emergency care physicians, as well as specialist pediatricians, surgeons, dentists, gynacologists, and experts in infectious diseases.

The field hospital, visited this week by Jewish News, has been set up in a three-story school in the village of Mostytskah near the Ukrainian-Polish border, with ten medical tents outside. Ukrainians can receive medical care, therapy, and treatment at the hospital, but surgery patients will be taken to a nearby hospital.

“The first floor is for those requiring hospitalisation and can accommodate 68-70 patients at a time,” said an Israeli medic, who asked not to be named. “The second and third floors are living quarters for doctors and nurses. Tents represent different departments, such as pediatrics and orthopedics.”

Lior Hyatt, spokesman for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said all the medics volunteered to help Ukrainians. “This is one of the most important missions of my life,” he said. “It shows the solidarity of the people of Israel with the people of Ukraine.”