Answering the need for Nepal's humanitarian aid, Israel DefenseForces (IDF) jumbo jets laden with with emergency supplies landed in disaster-stricken Nepal throughout the night and on Tuesday morning.
On Saturday an earthquake, ranking 7.9 on the Richter scale, devastated the Himalayan country, claiming over 4,000 lives.
According to an official statement from the IDF, a contingent of 260 soldiers and future officers have arrived and will begin search and rescue efforts.
A pair of Israel Air Force helicopters have also joined the search and rescue efforts, Israel Radio reported Tuesday.
In addition to the much needed injection of man-power, 95 tons of medical and logistical equipment also arrived with the airborne convoy, including critical material that will be used to set up field hospitals that is meant to begin treatment of the injured within 12 hours of the delegation's arrival.
“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.
“Because we coming in a relatively short time, we are hoping to find survivors underneath the rubble, so for this stage the main mission is to save lives,” he said.
The search and rescue team has 60 members and can operate in three separate locations simultaneously.
“You are being sent on an important mission,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Laredo before he took off. “This is the real face of Israel — a state that comes to assist those far away at moments like these. Good luck, we are counting on you.”
The Israeli humanitarian mission comprises about 260 medical and rescue crew members, two operating rooms, four intensive-care rooms, 80 hospital beds and specialists in neonatal and adult care. The team includes dozens of army physicians in the regular army and the reserves.
The medical delegation is set to stay in Nepal for two to three weeks, and based on past experience, a delegation from another Western country will replace it as needed (in Haiti, the Americans replaced it, and the replacements in the Philippines were German and Austrian).
“We have strong capabilities in intensive care, ultrasound imaging and x-rays, as well as transferring medical knowledge that will enable computerized identification of the patients,” said Prof. Itzik Kreis, the commander of the Israeli emergency relief field hospital in Haiti, who also mentioned that this time, hundreds of Israelis will be receiving medical assistance as well.
The assstance team is considered one of the largest humanitarian aid teams that Israel has sent abroad in recent years.