Israeli medical teams aid Haiti victims
AN Israel Defence Forces medical and rescue team has set up a field hospital and begun treating earthquake-stricken victims in Haiti.
JERUSALEM — An Israel Defence Forces medical and rescue team has set up a field hospital and begun treating earthquake-stricken victims in Haiti.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced at Sunday’s Cabinet meeting that the Israeli team had already treated hundreds of patients.
“I think that this is in the best tradition of the Jewish People; this is the true covenant of the State of Israel and the Jewish People,” he said.
“This follows operations we have carried out in Kenya and Turkey; despite being a small country, we have responded with a big heart.”
Israeli medical professionals of IsraAID – FIRST travelled to the main Port-au-prince Hospital over the weekend to start treating patients, joining local physicians at the site of the collapsed central hospital where thousands of wounded have gathered looking for help.
A search and rescue team from the ZAKA International Rescue Unit pulled eight Haitian college students from a collapsed eight-story university building on January 16.
Tens of thousands of Haitians are believed to be dead following last week’s devastating earthquake.
Mati Goldstein, head of the ZAKA International Rescue Unit delegation, described the scene in Haiti as the “Shabbat from hell”.
“Everywhere, the acrid smell of bodies hangs in the air. It’s just like the stories we are told of the Holocaust — thousands of bodies everywhere. You have to understand that the situation is true madness, and the more time passes, there are more and more bodies, in numbers that cannot be grasped. It is beyond comprehension.”
JTA