Israel spearheads Nepal relief efforts
Israeli’s ambulance service led international relief efforts in Nepal this week, arriving ahead of all other foreign medical organisations and getting straight down to work treating the wounded.
Almost as soon as the quake happened, Magen David Adom had hired a plane, mobilised supplies, and recruited eight of its finest medics. They touched down in Kathmandu on Sunday, when most aid efforts were still in the planning stages, and worked selflessly for two days, hardly eating or resting, before returning to Israel.
They mucked in with local military doctors, and kept their cool in almost-impossible conditions. “I had to do stitches without any anaesthetic,” said Ravit Amitai, a paramedic.
She talked to The AJN just after getting back home on Tuesday. “I hardly slept and there was no proper food or drink supply, so I’m physically drained.”
Amitai had been looking forward to a regular week with her husband and two children when she was asked on Saturday to join the mission. A little over 12 hours later she was a heroine to Nepalese men and women.
“When they saw us they immediately knew from the Magen Davids on our uniform that we are from Israel – were very thankful and welcomed us very warmly,” she said, adding that she had initially feared being identified as Israeli but found that it had only positive associations to the Nepalese.
Some six Israeli planes followed MDA’s, and as of press time, almost 300 Israelis were on the ground involved in recovery, rescue, medical and diplomatic efforts. President Reuven Rivlin dubbed them “angel envoys.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that they represent “the true face of Israel – a country that offers aid over any distance at
such moments.”
Most of the Israelis are part of a mission dispatched by the military and the Foreign Ministry which, as The AJN went to press, was just finishing assembling a large field hospital in Kathmandu, which it brought flat-pack complete with machinery and equipment, on two planes – and preparing to open its doors in a few hours. In a conference call from the new hospital, IDF spokeswoman Libby Weiss said that queues were starting to form. “We are prepared for anything,” she said, adding that the faculty includes operating theatres and facilities for delivering babies, which are especially important as trauma can induce early labour.
For the population around the hospital, it represents a symbol of hope. “Much of the area surrounding us consists of collapsed buildings and infrastructure
that has been seriously compromised,” Weiss said.
The mission has also been involved in search and rescue operations, in cooperation with local authorities.
As well as Israel’s national mission, several of the country’s non-profit organisations are on the ground in Nepal. They are working fast – one group that The AJN is in contact with, Joint Disaster Response Team, rescued 10 people on Tuesday, even before most of its men landed in Nepal.
The team, which is an alliance of the ZAKA, United Hatzolah and FIRST organisations, had to split up to get seats on connections from Hong Kong to Nepal. The first three men to the final destination managed to rescue 10 people even before their comrades arrived.
Israelis in Nepal, and Israeli insurance companies, had received word that 10 Israelis were stranded at a monastery just outside Kathmandu. The Joint Disaster Response Team, which sourced four-wheel-drive vehicles and went to rescue them, found the men and women in good health but traumatised, and took them back to the city to await a flight back home.
While the Joint Disaster Response Team’s first operation was to save Israelis, its mission is also a general one, and will be heavily focused on the Nepalese population. Dovi Maisel of United Hatzolah said that he expects his team to leave Kathmandu for outlying areas where people are isolated. “The villages aren’t being cared for at all,” he said.
Mati Goldstein, head of the ZAKA contingency in the team, reported: “We have connected with the local army, which gives us the possibility to reach every place and operate there.”
Maisel estimates that his team’s mission will cost between 100,000 and 200,000 US dollars – all of which will come from donations. A seasoned rescuer, who was part of a mission at the 2010 Haiti earthquake, he said that the scenes in Nepal are still deeply disturbing. “We’re trusted and experienced, but to see human suffering is always difficult.”
He added: “From the second you leave the airport you see the magnitude of
the damage.”
The Nepalese tragedy has been felt with intensity in many Israeli homes. There were 600 Israelis in Nepal when the earthquake happened according to the Foreign Ministry — predominantly young men and women who are travelling after completing army service, and in each of their homes, parents, brothers and sisters skipped a heartbeat. Most quickly made it back to safety – but not all.
Zohar Shavit received a satellite phone message from his daughter Shachar on Sunday, in which she confirmed that she’s alive but said that her situation is bad and she needs rescuing, and transmitted her location. But he said that the Nepalese authorities are in control of all helicopters and have failed to make one available for his daughter’s rescue.
“It’s a terrible feeling, because you know that your daughter is alive and you know exactly where she is, but you can do nothing because you are waiting for the Nepalese army or government to give us a helicopter,” Shavit said, reporting with a heavy heart just before press time that she has still not been carried to safety.
There were four Israelis unaccounted for at press time. More than 200 had returned to Israel, and most of the rest were in the relative safety of Chabad House or the Israeli embassy in Kathmandu. The first to leave, returning on small planes that brought rescue teams, were eight babies, the children of gay Israeli couples who were in Nepal to collect them from surrogate mothers.
Among them were Amir and Alon Michaeli-Molian with their new baby Maya and their two-year-old daughter Shira. Amir later told The AJN about the “most horrible night ever experienced” after the quake, when it was too cold to be outside but he feared that the hotel, which had cracked walls, would collapse. He struggled to sterilise a bottle and source clean water to feed Maya, and tried his utmost to put on a brave face for the sake of Shira. “We were exhausted, trying to hold on for the children,” he recalled.
The rabbi who runs Chabad House, Chezki Lifshitz, could hardly move, as Israelis in sleeping bags filled every inch of available safe space – meaning the courtyards as the indoor space was deemed unsafe. Together with his wife Chani, he has taken in anybody who arrived, providing food, phone lines to family, and a sense of community. “Many people were crying but now are feeling a bit better as they are together with other Israelis and Jews,” he said.
Lifshitz added: “I will stay here until all the Jews will leave. And then maybe we’ll stay here and help the local people.”
To donate to the MDA campaign, go to www.magendavidadom.org.au, or phone (03) 9272 5633 (Melbourne) or (02) 9358 2521 (Sydney).
To donate to Tevel B’Tzedek through the appeal set up by the “Exchange for Change” alumni, go to https://www.mycause.com.au/page/96398/nepalearthquakerelief.
To donate to the Joint Distribution Committee’s relief efforts, go to http://jdc.org/nepalearthquake.
To donate to Chabad of Nepal, go to https://www.shiftmediassl.com/donate/?lang=en&u=133&op=3600-1800-1000-500-100-50&schum=&rpc=
NATHAN JEFFAY
MDA medics in action in Nepal.
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