Rushing to the site of the attack, Adam Sfadi found his own 12-year-old child was already dead. Despite his loss, he carried on tending to other wounded kids, saving lives.

On July 27, Adam Sfadi, a paramedic with Israeli national emergency response service Magen David Adom (MDA) in the northern Druze town of Majdal Shams, was on his way home from a wedding when he heard rocket alert sirens followed by a large explosion.

“A day that started with great joy, a wedding… I couldn’t believe it would end like this,” Sfadi recalled.

He saw the smoke billowing over the town’s soccer field and without hesitation rushed to the area to help anyone who might have been hurt.

Sfadi knew that his youngest daughter, 12-year-old Vinis, was supposed to be at the municipal soccer field that day with her friends.

Scene of horrors

The 50-year-old senior paramedic arrived at a scene of horrors.

Over a dozen children were lying on the field motionless. Among them he saw his daughter, whom he could only recognize by her Arsenal FC jersey.

“I recognized Vinis and her friend by the soccer uniforms they were wearing when I saw them a few hours earlier. There was nothing to do; she was lifeless,” he said.

The damage from the Falaq-1 missile, fired across the border from Lebanon by the Hezbollah terror group, was so severe that it killed 12 Druze children aged 10 to 16, and wounded dozens of others.

“I don’t remember much of what was there,” he said.

Despite being overwhelmed with emotions, Sfadi asked other paramedics at the scene to cover up the dead children.

“[Another paramedic] took off his shirt and, at my request, covered my daughter’s head with it,” he told the media.

Helping the wounded

Sfadi, meanwhile, rushed to provide medical help to the wounded.

“I took a deep breath and continued to treat the wounded who were on the field,” said Sfadi, whose professionalism on that day helped save many lives.

“I want everyone to know about the great work of MDA paramedics at the scene [that day]. They gave their all for the wounded,” he said.

“The MDA family supports me and never leaves me for a second, even to this day.”

MDA Director General Eli Bin told ISRAEL21c: “Since the October 7 attacks, I have come across many heroic stories of MDA workers and volunteers. This is one of them. The MDA family sends Adam Sfadi and his family condolences and promises to be there for him and by his side.”