In March 2022, only weeks after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, I boarded a plane as part of Israel’s official humanitarian delegation. At the time, I was serving as Director of the Department for Overseas Projects and Coordinator of Israel’s governmental donations to Ukraine within MASHAV, Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation, operating under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Our mission was clear: to establish a fully functioning field hospital in western Ukraine, near the Polish border, for civilians fleeing the war.

That hospital became the heart of Israel’s humanitarian response.

Led by Sheba Medical Center and headed by Professor Yoel Har-Even, who today leads significant medical projects in Albania, our delegation included approximately 80 doctors, nurses, paramedics, technicians, and logistics experts from several Israeli hospitals. Jews and Arabs, religious and secular, veteran professionals and younger staff, working shoulder to shoulder.

The hospital was established roughly 14 kilometers from the Polish border. It was named “Kochav Meir”: “Shining Star”, in honor of Golda Meir, Israel’s fourth Prime Minister who established MASHAV.

But the name carried a second, literal meaning. In the darkness of war, we sought to be exactly that: a shining star.

This was not a symbolic clinic. It was a fully operational hospital. It included an emergency department, pediatric care, a maternity unit, imaging and laboratory services, pharmacy support, and telemedicine connections to Israel. It functioned as a hospital in every sense of the word.

For several months, it treated civilians who had fled bombardment in central and eastern Ukraine.

I remember a young boy undergoing cancer treatment. War had interrupted his life, but his illness did not pause. I remember elderly civilians arriving to renew prescriptions or receive X-rays. I remember complicated medical cases that required urgent intervention. And I remember one woman who arrived in labor and gave birth in our field hospital—a moment of life piercing through the shadow of destruction.

What moved me most was not only the medical professionalism, but the humanity. Israeli doctors and nurses treated patients with extraordinary empathy. Some members of the delegation themselves had emigrated from Ukraine or other former Soviet republics. Russian and Ukrainian were spoken in the corridors alongside Hebrew and Arabic. Politics dissolved into medicine. Identity dissolved into responsibility.

The hospital embodied something essential about Israel: a country that experiences conflict, yet committed to the Jewish principle of “Tikun Olam”: amending the world.

Beyond the hospital walls, I visited the border crossings between Ukraine and Poland. There, young Israeli volunteers welcomed refugees, mostly women and children, as men remained behind to fight. They offered warm drinks, blankets, toys, and reassurance. These were not the stereotypical images of displaced populations; they were dignified families forced to leave beautiful homes overnight. The Israeli volunteers responded not only with supplies, but with compassion born of collective memory.

The international media tends to minimize the contribution of Israel to world humanity. But Israel’s response was not limited to medical teams and volunteers. During the first months of the war, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs deployed Israeli diplomats along Ukraine’s borders in Romania, Moldova, Poland, and Slovakia to assist Israeli citizens and Jewish communities, as well as refugees more broadly.

Consular teams worked around the clock. Emergency procedures were activated. Coordination with local authorities and international partners was constant

For a small country geographically distant from Ukraine, Israel’s footprint on the humanitarian front was significant.

While the “Kochav Meir” field hospital stood at the center of Israel’s humanitarian response, it was part of a wider effort led by the Israeli Embassy in Kyiv together with MASHAV and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

From the earliest days of the war:

• Ukrainian children battling cancer were brought to Israel for specialized treatment in leading Israeli hospitals, offering renewed hope amid devastation.
• Wounded Ukrainian soldiers underwent comprehensive rehabilitation and advanced prosthetic treatment in Israel.
• During prolonged winter blackouts, the Israeli Embassy in Kyiv, together with Ukraine’s State Emergency Service, established a “Resilience Point” that provided electricity, heating, internet, water, and refreshments to civilians.
• Hundreds of tons of humanitarian supplies, including medicines, medical equipment, winter gear, and water purification systems, were delivered across Ukraine.
• Six armored ambulances donated by Magen David Adom strengthened emergency response capacity.
• More than 3,000 professionals participated in online trauma and emergency-response trainings, and 250 specialists received professional training in Israel.
• The first Ukrainian-Israeli Rehabilitation Conference convened experts from both countries to advance collaborative approaches to physical and psychological recovery.

These initiatives were significant. They saved lives, strengthened institutions, and supported resilience.

For me, the mission carried also a personal dimension:

My grandparents fled the city of Lviv in 1933, then in Poland, today in Ukraine. Nearly their entire extended family perished in the Holocaust. They escaped because they were Jews.

Standing in Ukraine, in the county of Lviv, as part of a humanitarian mission representing the sovereign Jewish state, I felt history converge.

I found myself speaking to them silently: Eighty years ago, you had to flee from here because of your Jewish identity. Today, I stand here as your descendant, representing a strong Jewish state, offering help to others in need.

“Kochav Meir” was more than a hospital. It was a statement.

That in times of darkness, even a small country can stand by those in need and shine.

A shining star, indeed. / ADN

*Ms Galit Peleg is the Ambassador of Israel to Albania. Today Ukraine marks the 4th year of Russia’s agression