Rescue Team Heads to Nepal

By COLlive reporter

A group of 23 rescue and medical personnel are taking off from Israel, flying out to Nepal to assist in rescue and recovery efforts.

Israeli rescue organizations, including Ichud Hatzalah, Zaka and Israelife are gearing up for a comprehensive and complex long-term rescue and recovery mission.

The IDF will be setting up their highly regarded field hospital and will activate members of the Home Front Command for search and rescue missions.

150 Israelis are still missing or unaccounted for after the magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit on Saturday afternoon, killing over 2,500 people.

The joint team, leaving Sunday, will include a wide range of experts in their field with disaster response experience in Japan, Haiti and the Philippines. The multi-disciplinary teams will work together in squads with each member carrying out the tasks that they are uniquely qualified to perform and supporting the efforts of other team members as operational conditions require. A primary focus will be setting up local aid stations in outlying regions as well as extricating and evacuating victims to the stations.

Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, ZAKA Chairman said, “Volunteers from our international division have experience in previous disasters like the earthquake in Haiti. We are in fact talking about a complex operation but our volunteers have experience in extrication under difficult field conditions. The collaboration with the SAR specialists from F.I.R.S.T., the medical personnel of United Hatzalah and the body retrieval experts from ZAKA is what makes this mission so unique.”

Eli Pollack, Chairman of the Israelife Foundation stated, “It is our duty and privilege to harness the combined skills of F.I.R.S.T., ZAKA and United Hatzalah for the benefit of the people of Nepal during their time of need.”

Eli Beer, President of United Hatzalah said “United Hatzalah paramedics with experience in catastrophes of this magnitude will establish and staff medical aid stations to deal with the expected mass of crush injuries, fractures, lacerations and infectious complications of these injuries.”

Yossi Frankel, operations officers for Zaka International, said the mission plans to be out there for about two weeks, but “we will only know once we get there how bad the situation is, how long we will have to remain there, and if we need to bring more teams out,” he said.