A 80-member Israeli humanitarian aid delegation set flight for Nepal, after a magnitude-7.8 quake struck the capital city Kathmandu on Saturday. The earthquake’s death toll has already reached more than 3,000 people.
They will be joined shortly in Nepal by another cargo flight with around 170 trained military personnel.
“We’re on a mission to achieve three things. Deploy major search and rescue operations. Admit patients to our field hospitals within 12 hours of landing. Help the Nepalese people,” said Colonel Yoram Larado, head of the IDF humanitarian delegation to Nepal
The first team is scheduled to arrive in Nepal late Monday night. It will immediately join other countries that have set up disaster relief efforts in the aftermath of the worst earthquake to hit Nepal in the past 80 years.
In the next two weeks, the IDF search and rescue teams will be deployed near Kathmandu. The goal is to locate survivors in the rubble of collapsed buildings. A field hospital will also be set up to provide medical services to the local population.