‘Praying with my wheels’: Volunteers help sick Palestinians to Israeli hospitals

Volunteers are with Road to Recovery -- a charity the late Israeli-Canadian peace activist Vivian Silver also worked with before her death in the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.

Mahmoud Saidi is just one-and-a-half years old, but he knows the routine quite well.

His rare genetic disorder requires a long trip to the hospital every few weeks and almost every time, there’s a different driver. But always, it is an Israeli.

The Saida family are from the West Bank, and are only allowed into Israel because of Mahmoud’s medical condition. His Palestinian parents cannot drive in Israel, so they rely on volunteers like Matitiyahu Sperber, who try their next to make it a comfortable trip.

He’s part of a charity called Road to Recovery — one that the late Israeli-Canadian peace activist Vivian Silver also worked with before her death in the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.

“I have to say that I really see it as a privilege,” Sperber told Global News.

He’s one of about a thousand volunteers who shuttle sick Palestinians, mostly children, to Israeli hospitals from the occupied West Bank — and prior to Oct. 7, from Gaza as well.

“It’s like my mission,” said Yael Nov, head of Road to Recovery. “You cannot go against your mission.”

Nov is the head of the charity, and proud of her work. But now, she’s also very cautious.