'All of Israel is proud'

IDF rescue delegation returns from quake-hit Turkey

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) Home Front Command teams managed to rescue 19 civilians from the rubble in southeastern Turkey.

Lt. Col. Aziz Ibrahim, a nurse and a commander in the IDF Medical Corps. Photo: IDF
Lt. Col. Aziz Ibrahim, a nurse and a commander in the IDF Medical Corps. Photo: IDF

A delegation of more than 160 Israeli search and rescue experts was greeted at Ben Gurion Airport on Monday afternoon, after spending the past week saving civilians trapped under collapsed buildings in Turkey following the devastating earthquakes that struck the region.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) Home Front Command teams – which also included some Magen David Adom paramedics and Fire and Rescue Service officials – managed to rescue 19 civilians from the rubble in southeastern Turkey.

“This is an unprecedented number of rescues compared to previous IDF rescue missions,” the military said in a statement.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, welcoming the delegation back in Israel, said, “You brought great honour to the State of Israel. We saw you in action in the cold, in difficult conditions around the clock in the most sacred work a person can do – saving the lives of others.

“You showed the entire world the true and beautiful face of the State of Israel: a small country with a huge soul, a country that rushes to help others around the world and in the harshest conditions, out of humanity and the highest morality. This is the true face of Israel.

“All of Israel is proud of you. I am proud of you. I salute you. Welcome home.”

According to Israeli officials, Israel’s field hospital has so far treated 412 people wounded in the earthquakes. It will continue to operate at least until the end of the week.

The field hospital, established near the Turkish city of Kahramanmaraş, has also treated Syrian refugees living in the country, who were injured in the earthquakes.

The IDF said last Saturday that at least 10 Syrian civilians who were in Turkey at the time of Monday’s 7.8-magnitude quake and its aftershocks were treated at the field hospital, which was set up in an abandoned medical centre building, including a four-year-old Syrian refugee whose parents were killed in the quake.

“We treated him and calmed him down. He came in a moderate to serious condition,” said Lt. Col. Aziz Ibrahim, a nurse and a commander in the IDF Medical Corps.

Ibrahim said the boy’s uncle came up to him and said, “You Israelis treat us better than our people.”

“This was really touching, I told him we’re here to save lives … I think this is a good message for the world to know what the IDF is and what its values are,” Ibrahim said.

The IDF Home Front Command is regularly dispatched around the world to assist in natural disasters. The Israeli military field hospital is also regularly dispatched to provide humanitarian relief.

Meanwhile, a delegation from the United Hatzolah emergency response organisation cut short its mission and returned to Israel early over security concerns.

The delegation returned early over an unspecified “concrete and immediate threat”, according to Dovi Maisel, the vice-president of operations for the organisation.

As the earthquake death toll topped 36,000 people in both Turkey and Syria this week, United Nations relief chief Martin Griffiths predicted that it could reach 55,000.

Back in Israel, where tremors were felt, the head of the government’s earthquake preparedness committee told lawmakers this week that Israel’s major cities are not fully prepared in the event of a major earthquake.

“If an earthquake like the one in Turkey happens here, we will see similar sights,” Amir Yahav said, comparing the lack of readiness of Israel’s emergency services and at-risk buildings to the disaster-struck country.

Israel lies along an active fault line – the Great Rift Valley, or the Syrian African Rift. The last major earthquake to hit the region was in 1927 and seismologists estimate that such earthquakes occur in this region approximately every 100 years.

Times of Israel

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