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Israel Rushes Humanitarian Aid, IDF Rescue Units To Haiti, Opens Facebook Group
By
Joel Leyden Jerusalem ---- January 13, 2010…… Within minutes of a devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake slamming the Caribbean nation of Haiti, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had instructed the Israel Defense, Foreign Affairs and Public Security ministries to urgently administer humanitarian aid. Haiti President Rene Preval has stated that over 100,000 people had been killed. “I believe that we are well over 100,000. I hope that is not true because I hope people had the time to get out. We have so many people in the street and we don’t know exactly where they were living. But there are so many buildings, so many neighborhoods totally destroyed and in some neighborhoods we don’t even see people so I don’t know where those people are,” said Preval. The tremor, which was centered 10 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince, the densely populated capital city of about 2 million inhabitants, was expected to be followed by several aftershocks which may persist for days and cause more damage to crumbling buildings and pose a risk to rescuers searching for survivors. As Haitians piled bodies along the devastated streets of their capital, the Israel Foreign Ministry prepared an IDF search and rescue team for departure. As of this report, four Israelis are unaccounted for in Haiti, among them the daughter of late Israel peace activist Abie Nathan. The Israel search and rescue team includes elite army corps engineers (Handasa Kravit) and medical units which are ready to deploy field hospitals. IsraAID has also sent a 12-man search-and-rescue team, which includes emergency medical staff. The IDF Home Front Command sent search and rescue forces to Haiti, working in cooperation with US relief efforts operating from Miami, with air drops and a US aircraft carrier moving into position. The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson is expected to reach Haiti by Thursday afternoon. A number of other ships, including the USNS Comfort hospital ship and a group of amphibious ships with a Marine Expeditionary Unit aboard, are on standby and may leave for Haiti in the next few days. The Medical Officer of the IDF Home Front Command, Dr. Ariel Bar, informed Israel Army Radio that measures have already been taken in order to minimize the preparation period of the operation. An initial Israel delegation including Ministry of Foreign Affairs, IDF Home Front Command and IDF Medical Corps Personnel left Israel today at 11:30 a.m. for the Republic of Haiti. Israel Defense Forces search and rescue forces have been involved in several international rescue operations after natural disasters in the past, including the Izmit earthquake which hit Turkey with a 7.6 magnitude in August 1999. Israel search and rescue forces and medical teams operated for seven continuous days in coordination with Turkey authorities and rescued 12 victims of the earthquake and recovered 140 bodies. As part of their activities, the IDF forces also set up a field hospital in Turkey, which continued operating after the search and rescue forces returned to Israel. More than one thousand patients and wounded people were treated in the hospital and fourteen babies were delivered in the hospital labor room. "The IDF Home Front Command constantly trains its search and rescue forces to respond accurately to emergencies," an IDF spokesperson told the Israel News Agency. "The IDF frequently holds search and rescue exercises in cooperation with civilian Israel and international organizations, such as the Reliant Mermaid X exercise in August 2009, in which Turkey, US and Israel naval and aerial forces cooperated. The IDF Home Front Command and the Israel Ministry of Health are also currently holding an international conference for emergency preparedness and response to share it's experience with hundreds of international officials." Israel is
very well known and respected for its humanitarian relief efforts
which stretch from Gaza to the Pacific Ocean. Israel and Haiti maintain full diplomatic relations. In 1947, Haiti voted for the United Nations’ partition of Palestine and the creation of the State of Israel. Many Haitians share much respect and admiration for Israel and its struggles. Jewish residents of Haiti's neighbor the Dominican Republic are readying efforts to help, the Chabad Website reported. Speaking from his home in S. Domingo, Rabbi Shimon Pelman, director of Chabad-Lubavitch of the Dominican Republic, reported that he was attempting to ascertain the whereabouts of a handful of Jewish families and visiting Israelis in Haiti, which comprises the western half of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. Israel's ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Amos Radyan, is now traveling by car to Port au Prince on in order to make an initial assessment. Radyan will be risking his life as he travels over broken roads, fallen electric lines, floods and possible harassment by the desperate and starving. The UN mission chief to Haiti is among those missing with more than 100 people in the rubble of the collapsed UN headquarters building. UN peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy would not confirm French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner's report that everyone in the UN building, including Hedi Annabi, appeared to have died in the earthquake. The EU has activated its emergency crisis management system to help quake-hit Haiti, French Secretary of State for European Affairs Pierre Lellouche said. "We have put in place at the European level all crisis and aid management mechanisms. We have put in place the entire European crisis management system."
Another Israel
organization Israeli Flying Aid (IFA) expects to operative for
humanitarian relief efforts in Haiti. Israel Flying Aid is a non
– for – profit, non governmental aid organization which
provides life saving aid to people affected by natural and man
made disasters in developing countries worldwide. IFA provides
assistance to all who are in need by distribution of relief items,
medical assistance and any other life saving methods. IFA has
been involved in several disaster relief and humanitarian efforts
ranging from Hurricane Katrina in the US to building a medical
clinics in Ethiopia.
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