90 Seconds? Lives Saved? The Claims and the Record
What the organization says about its speed and the lives it saves, set beside its own testimony, official reports and the research.
In short: United Hatzalah’s Hebrew website says its volunteers arrive in 90 seconds on average. Its own English website says it has not reached 90 seconds nationwide, and its own operations chief told the Knesset the national average is about three minutes. We found no published method behind any of its “lives saved” figures.
90 seconds? What the organization says in Hebrew, in English and to the Knesset
The Hebrew home page, today:
“השנה מעל 10,000 מתנדבי איחוד הצלה טיפלו ביותר מ- 800,000 מקרים רפואיים בזמן הגעה ממוצע של 90 שניות!”
Our translation: “This year more than 10,000 United Hatzalah volunteers treated more than 800,000 medical cases with an average arrival time of 90 seconds!”
1221.org.il home page, read Oct 24, 2026
Set beside the record:
- Its own English website says the goal has not been reached: “The organization has not yet reached this goal nationwide” and “Some areas are close to the 90-second goal, while others still lag well behind.” israelrescue.org, Frequently Asked Questions, read Oct 24, 2026
- Its own operations chief told the Knesset about three minutes: Dovi Maisel, Vice President of Operations, to the Knesset National Security Committee on Jan 2, 2024: “זמן ההגעה הממוצע הארצי שלנו עומד על שלוש דקות. בערים בהן אנחנו מבוססים טוב שזה רוב הערים כיום בארץ, אנחנו עומדים על כ-90 שניות.” Our translation: “Our national average arrival time stands at three minutes. In cities where we are well established, which is most cities in the country today, we stand at about 90 seconds.” Knesset National Security Committee, protocol no. 101, Jan 2, 2024 (official text; the published text has no page numbers)
- Health Ministry monitoring found 4 minutes 48 seconds: Israel Hayom reported on Jan 23, 2017 that the Health Ministry had begun monitoring arrival times, and that the national averages were 9:53 for ambulances and 4:48 for first responders. That figure covers first responders from all organizations, not only this one. Israel Hayom, Jan 23, 2017 (Hebrew)
- Its own 2022 annual report says two different things: page 3 says “90 SECONDS OR LESS RESPONSE TIME.” Page 15 says the organization “responds to medical emergencies in less than three minutes across Israel, with the dream of arriving at any medical emergency in Israel in 90 seconds or less.” United Hatzalah, 2022 Year in Review, page 3 page 15
- Eli Beer at TED (2013): “Our average response time today went down to less than three minutes in Israel.” TED talk transcript, “The fastest ambulance? A motorcycle,” posted Jul 30, 2013
Differs from the record The Hebrew home page’s “average arrival time of 90 seconds” does not match the organization’s own English website, its own testimony to the Knesset, or the Health Ministry figures reported in the press. The organization does not publish the call-by-call data that would let anyone check any of these numbers.
At the same Knesset session, Maisel said: “אני מעריך שבעוד כחצי שנה נתחיל לפרסם נתונים מהמחקר שאנו מבצעים.” Our translation: “I estimate that in about half a year we will begin publishing data from the research we are conducting.” As of Oct 24, 2026, we have not found any published results. Knesset protocol no. 101, Jan 2, 2024
“Lives saved”: treated is not the same as saved
5.5 million “treated” on one page, 5.5 million “saved” on another
What was said: Page 15 of the 2022 annual report says the organization “has resulted in more than 5.5 million people being saved.” 2022 Year in Review, page 15
The record: Page 3 of the same report gives the same number as people treated: “5.5M TREATED SINCE INCEPTION.” 2022 Year in Review, page 3 Being treated by a first responder (for a fall, a cut or a faint, as well as a heart attack) is not the same as having your life saved. The report gives no method for counting lives saved.
Differs from the record
“Over 150 people” saved every day
What was said: The Algemeiner reported on Mar 15, 2023 what Eli Beer told it: “Its volunteers save over 150 people in Israel daily.” (These are the newspaper’s words reporting what he said, not a direct quote.) The Algemeiner, Mar 15, 2023
The record: That would be about 55,000 people a year. No method or data behind the figure has been published. For comparison, Magen David Adom said its teams were sent to “more than 6,000 cases of cardiac arrest” in all of 2023, and the national and city-wide Israeli studies below found that 11% or fewer of cardiac-arrest patients left the hospital alive.
No published basis: we found no definition of a “save,” no hospital-survival data and no outside audit for any “lives saved” figure from United Hatzalah, from FOUH (the American fundraising arm) or from Ichud Hatzalah of Israel 1221 (the Israeli nonprofit). The Israeli nonprofit’s annual activity reports to the Registrar of Nonprofits for 2010 to 2024 describe its work (“saving human lives… with emphasis on the first minutes”) but give no response times, call counts or survival figures. FOUH’s US tax returns give no performance figures either.
How many calls? The organization’s own numbers vary
- “700K+ EMERGENCY CALLS IN 2022” 2022 Year in Review, page 3
- “Responding to over 675,000 calls each year” 2022 Year in Review, page 16
- “an average of 14,400 emergency calls per week” (about 749,000 a year) English FAQ, Oct 24, 2026
- The Hebrew home page shows both “800,000” cases this year and “2,000 מקרים רפואיים מטופלים בכל יום” (“2,000 medical cases treated every day,” about 730,000 a year). 1221.org.il, Oct 24, 2026
None of these counts is defined (for example, whether a call where a volunteer arrived after the ambulance is counted) and none has been independently audited.
What the research says
- Survival after cardiac arrest in Israel is low. In Ashdod, 2018–2021, 48 of 1,253 out-of-hospital cardiac-arrest patients (7.4%) survived to leave the hospital (Deri et al., Journal of Clinical Medicine, 2022, Results section). Read the study A national MDA survey in 2000 found 11% PubMed abstract. A Shamir Medical Center emergency director said in 2023 that survival “remains below 5% in Israel.” Jerusalem Post
- Fast first responders help, but the size of the effect is uncertain. The Cochrane review of community first responders (2019) found they increase CPR and defibrillation before the ambulance arrives. Neither trial in the review found a significant increase in the number of survivors. Cochrane review CD012764
- No study of this organization’s effect on survival. We found no peer-reviewed study measuring how many lives United Hatzalah’s volunteers have saved.
Who checks the numbers?
The State Comptroller wrote in 2019: “יש חשש שקריאות המגיעות למוקד של איחוד הצלה לא יועברו באופן שיטתי ומוסדר למוקד 101 של מד"א” Our translation: “There is concern that calls reaching United Hatzalah’s center will not be forwarded systematically and in an orderly way to MDA’s 101 center.” State Comptroller, Annual Report 69B (2019), page 844
Interested source: Magen David Adom, the national ambulance service and United Hatzalah’s rival, published its own analysis of 101 calls (May 2021 to Feb 2022) and said it “arrived first 91.4% of the time.” MDA is a party to the dispute, so this is not independent. American Friends of Magen David Adom, Mar 4, 2022
Why nobody can count “lives saved”
No one can know for sure who would have died without help. What can be measured is how often a volunteer arrived before the ambulance, by how many minutes, in how many cardiac arrests, and how many of those patients left the hospital alive. The organization does not publish these figures. Until it does, “lives saved” numbers cannot be checked.
This page compares public statements with public records. It does not say why any statement differs from the record.
