Israeli medics on Moldova border says thousands need treatment and support after fleeing Ukraine

An Israeli medical team on Ukraine’s border with Moldova says tens of thousands are crossing over in need of medical and psychological support after harrowing journeys to safety. Many traveled to the border for several days as they took cover from missile strikes and struggled with cold and lack of food.

The team from the United Hatzalah emergency response organization is the first foreign medical team operating in Moldova. They have set up a command post in a synagogue in the capital, Chisinau.

Linor Attias, a medic with the team, says of the refugees, “They feel that they lost everything, and they did, that’s the reality.”

The team is administering medical care, mainly related to exhaustion, cold and hunger, and some injuries. Hypothermia is expected to become a major problem as the temperature drops.

Several pregnant women have come in with complications.

Most of the refugees are women, children, and the elderly, as men stay back to fight.

Most Ukrainians fleeing the fighting are moving to other areas of Ukraine, or to Poland, but Moldova is taking in around 70,000 people per day. The Hatzalah team has met many Israelis, who are struggling to find transportation from Moldova to Israel, and treated a Gazan and a Jordanian man, Attias says.

Dr. Zev Neuwirth, a physician with the Hatzalah team, says they are administering to acute medical needs first, then taking care of chronic conditions, since many people fled without their medicines.

Then they will provide psychological care and attend to “civil affairs,” such as food and hygiene.

Sometimes the care is “nothing more than a hug, a blanket, a little doll, candy,” he says.