ISRAELI AID TEAM IN MOROCCO SAVES LIVES

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The United Hatzalah delegation on the ground in Morocco is treating some 150-200 people a day, according to the organization’s director of French operations.

(JNS) Israeli United Hatzalah volunteers working in earthquake-stricken Morocco have pivoted from search and rescue to treating victims.

In a phone call with the Tazpit Press Service from the rural Moroccan village of Askouen, Hatzalah’s director of French operations, Samuel Arrouas, said, “Now we’re treating people who, for example… can’t get the medicines they need.”

United Hatzalah is an Israeli non-profit emergency medical services organization.

At least 3,000 people have died since a 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck Morocco on Sept. 8. The quake, whose epicenter was near Marrakech, devastated rural villages where thousands of homes collapsed, trapping people in the rubble.

Within 24 hours, a Hatzalah delegation was on the ground, involved in search and rescue operations.

Arrouas said the delegation has been traveling around rural Morocco, setting up a field clinic in small communities and treating people. Locations were chosen in consultation with local community leaders.

“We’re seeing people who didn’t have a lot, [and] who lost everything,” said Arrouas. “People with diabetes or high blood pressure who lost their medicine. People who broke a leg and now it’s infected, or they’re dehydrated. We’re treating on average 150-200 people a day.”

Arrouas said that when there’s free time, the volunteers spend time with Moroccan children, drawing pictures, passing out balloons and distributing toys.

“It’s like they’ve never seen toys in rural areas,” said Arrouas. “Most of the kids don’t go to school. They start working at a young age, and now they’ve lost their parents, and Israelis are passing out bread and playing with them.”

He told TPS about one eight-year-old boy who received a piece of candy from another humanitarian delegation and shared the treat with the Israelis “as a thank you” gesture.

“The Moroccans love Israel. They’re happy we’re there,” he said.

The aid work also meant spending Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, in the Atlas Mountains, away from families back in Israel. But saving lives “comes before everything,” Arrouas stressed.

Asked how the situation compares to other disaster areas he’s worked in, Arrouas said Morocco’s earthquake was “different” from the quake in February that killed more than 67,000 people in Turkey and Syria.

“In Turkey, buildings were higher and people were buried in the rubble for a long time,” he said. “Here, the buildings aren’t as solid, but it was easier to get people out because the homes were simpler.”

Israel and Morocco normalized relations in December 2020 as part of the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords. An estimated one million Israelis are either from Morocco or are of Moroccan descent. Approximately 3,000 Jews currently live in the North African country.

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IDF in Mexico for Earthquake Aid

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The IDF’s aid delegation to Mexico, moments before lifting off on September 20, 2017. (IDF Spokesperson)

           

Tazpit Press Service September 24, 2017                         

By: Mara Vigevani

A 60-strong delegation from the IDF’s Home Front Command, together with two foreign ministry representatives,  left for  Mexico City on Wednesday afternoon shortly before the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah)  to provide emergency aid after an earthquake hit the country, killing at least 200 people.

They were met with applause by Mexican civilians as they walked through Mexico City.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the IDF to send the delegation after receiving a request for aid from Mexican authorities in the wake of the 7.1 quake that caused several building in Mexico City to collapse on Tuesday night.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu ordered that an aid operation be organized to leave to Mexico as soon as possible,” his office said.

Gali Cohen, a representative of the Strategic Cooperation Division  of the National Emergency Authority and Home Front Command told Tazpit Press Service (TPS) the delegation would be comprised mainly of “engineers and other professionals that can provide assistance.” The delegation will stay in Mexico for a week and will come back on September 29, ahead of Yom Kippur.

Though the IDF soldiers were in Mexico to assist in aid and rescue missions, they made sure to perform the special commandments, or mitzvot, that are incumbent upon Jews during Rosh Hashana, including blowing the shofar.

The delegation is headed by Col. Dudi Mizrahi, the head of the army’s search and rescue unit.

Israeli diplomats in Mexico were in touch with local officials to find out what exactly Mexico needed.

Netanyahu made his first trip as prime minister to Mexico last week meeting with President Pena Nieto and offering reconstruction aid following an earthquake that killed 96 people in southern Mexico earlier this month. Wednesday morning  before taking off to Israel following a 10-day trip to Latin America and New York, Netanyahu said Israel’s “heart” was with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and the rest of the country.

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ISRAEL’S HUMANITY IN NEPAL

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By GIORA WEISER  16^th May 2015

‘Grant me the physical and mental strength to be forever prepared to help the poor and the rich, the good and the bad, my love and my enemy, and may I always see the human in the infirm,” instructs the Jewish Physician’s Prayer, attributed to the great sage Maimonides.

Instinctively, when I heard that there had been a series of massive earthquakes in Nepal just over two weeks ago, I knew that I would soon receive the call. Just as we did two years ago after Typhoon Haiyan devastated the Philippines and after the massive earthquakes in Haiti three years prior to that, Israel would not hesitate to outstretch its arm to those in need. Even when natural disasters ravage nations like Turkey and Iran, as Jews and Israelis we are morally commanded to offer our assistance.

I joined hundreds of other Israelis, who each left their worried families without a moment’s hesitation to board the plane to Nepal, where we would set up a field hospital in Kathmandu.

The scenes in Nepal were horrific.

Scores of badly injured people lay untreated in hospitals and medical facilities, the local doctors completely overwhelmed by their numbers. We worked around the clock to treat as many as we could. As well as treating people who made it to the Israeli field hospital, we were treating many Nepalese who were flown in by our search and rescue team.

One girl was brought to us by the Israeli rescue team from a small village five days after the earthquakes.

She was found unconscious alone in a wooded area and no one knew who she was or how she got there. At first she was in a life-threatening condition – she had suffered a major brain hemorrhage and had to undergo emergency surgery. However, on the last day of our mission, we witnessed her get out of bed and try to stand up.

Nevertheless, the devastation and trauma were such that there were very few silver linings during the mission.

A further example summed this up.

Another girl was brought to our hospital with relatively minor injuries and after a short while we wanted to release her. However, she had no relatives or family that we could find. She had no idea what happened to her father and mother and it was heart wrenching to see that even when we successfully treated our patients there would be mental, emotional and psychological scars and anguish for many years to come. Whole families and communities were ripped apart and devastated.

It is on occasions like these when one’s humanity is sorely tested. Every day at work in the pediatric emergency room at Shaare Tzedek Hospital I see trauma and injuries, but not on the scale that we witnessed in Nepal.

The experience affects all of us who were there and remains long after we return to our families and loved ones.

Nevertheless, I know I speak for every one of my colleagues when I say that we would willingly return without question if we are asked.

It is our job as physicians and healers to help the sick, the ill and the infirm.

However, as Jews, it our duty and moral imperative.

I saw and read the inflammatory reports and statements leveled against Israel for sending medical delegations to Nepal, especially the inhumane questioning of Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch (HRW). There we were, covered in blood, drenched in sweat, and sometimes tears, and exhausted, both mentally and physically after ending another 12-hour shift during which we saved multiple lives and mended broken bodies as best we could.

It is ironic that Roth can pontificate from the safety of a nice warm home thousands of miles away from the grief and devastation on his computer or smartphone about a nation he constantly maligns as non-caring and heartless.

Here in the depths of despair, when the Nepalese cried out for assistance, Israel sent its sons and daughters to their aid. This is how someone who is serious about human rights acts.

Less than a year ago I joined my Nachal Brigade as they entered Gaza to end the rocket barrages on our population centers. There too my task was to heal the sick and treat the wounded.

It mattered little whether it was my fellow soldier or a Gazan youth that required attention.

Regardless of headline-grabbing reports and anonymous sources pounced on by the international media like those from Breaking the Silence, we who serve in war and in peace know the truth.

We don’t seek acclaim or thanks, our sense of collective solidarity even with strangers across the world impels us to assist, to treat and heal.

This is Israel, Mr. Roth.

Perhaps if you came out and saw us from behind your computer screens you would understand what motivates us and what binds us to one of our founding doctrines of Tikkun Olam, fixing the world.

I am deeply proud to be part of a nation which does not hesitate for a moment to assist those in need wherever they may be.

Being part of the Jewish state is not just about self-governance, freedom and liberation for our people, it is also an opportunity for us as Jews to connect collectively with our ethical and moral foundations as a people which, among other things, instruct us to “always see the human in the infirm,” as Maimonides wrote around a millennium ago.

The writer is a doctor in the Pediatric Emergency Department at Shaare Tzedek Hospital in Jerusalem and was part of the Israeli medical delegation and field hospital in Nepal.