Police dispatchers take unimaginable phone calls

“They killed my mom and dad and I’m home with my six-year-old sister,” said a chilling recording of a phone call made by a 9-year-old boy from the Gaza periphery on the morning Hamas infiltrated southern Israel.

It was one of thousands of distress calls made to the police that day, and over half a million concerned citizens have called law enforcement since the outbreak of the war with a sense of fear and helplessness.

Dispatchers, mostly young officers, have had to deal with thousands of complex situations that they never imagined they would hear, including pleas with gunshots in the background, screaming and whispering. The calls were made by women, men, children and soldiers who asked for help while witnessing death.

“We received a call from a driver who said there were terrorists nearby,” one of the officers said. “We tried to figure out where she was. We sent her a link, which she used to share her location with us. We heard gunshots in the background, but they managed to escape. We directed them to a nearby kibbutz, where they safely stayed in a shelter.”

Heartbreaking conversations also took place on the special hotline established for the family members of missing or kidnapped Israelis. Operators said family members were not interested in hearing anything, “but only find out where their loved ones were.”

Some of the calls were made by soldiers, who, understanding that death was near, asked to leave a message for their family and friends.

Dispatchers described the pain of answering phone calls, sometimes without the possibility of providing information or comfort.