Israel Defense Force - IDF sends aid to Haiti

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Note: There will be no pictures of victims in my posts on Haiti, injured or dead, in respect of the families of the victims and to you all. - Isha Shiri

Israel sends aid

The Israel Defense Forces* aid mission to Haiti left Israel overnight Thursday with equipment for setting up an emergency field hospital. Around 220 soldiers and officers are in the delegation, including 120 medical staff who will operate the hospital in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.

The original plan was for the IDF to first send a Home Front Command rescue team, followed by medical teams.

But after contact was made with the Haitian authorities, the army and Foreign Ministry decided that the Caribbean country's most pressing need was extra medical staff. Nearly every hospital in Haiti was destroyed in Tuesday's earthquake.

The mission includes 40 doctors, 20 paramedics and 24 nurses, as well as medics and medical technicians. Around a third of the delegation is made up of reservists who were called up specially for the mission.

The IDF's chief medical officer, Brig. Gen. Nachman Esh, said that while the field hospital will largely treat trauma patients, similar to those encountered in a war, specialists in various other fields have also been sent.

"We expect to have to deal mainly with trauma cases, but when we arrive there, we also expect to encounter the secondary wave of infections and diseases, as well as the routine cases that the local hospitals would usually deal with," Esh told.

By Natasha Mozgovaya, Haaretz Correspondent in Haiti, and News Agencies

Staff of the Israel Defense Force to help Haiti

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IDF medical teams are preparing to spend two weeks in Haiti and to see an average of 500 patients a day, Chief IDF Medical Corps Officer Brig. Gen. Nahman Ash said thursday.
Search and rescue efforts at the collapsed UN headquarters in Port-au-Prince, a day after a powerful earthquake struck the Haitian capital city.

The delegation will consist of 121 members, including 40 doctors and five search-and-rescue teams. The delegation will lift off on two planes at 8 p.m. from Ben-Gurion International Airport.
Ash said that the field hospital would likely be set up in an area in or around the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince and would remain for at least two weeks.

"We assume that in the first stage we will deal with trauma patients and then the next round will be people suffering from infections and secondary illnesses", Ash said. The field hospital, he said, would have surgery rooms, and several beds in an Intensive Care Unit.

The planes will land on Friday and the field hospital will likely begin operations on Saturday. Soldiers from combat units are also being sent to provide security for the Israeli delegation.

Members of the delegation received vaccinations on Thursday to prepare them for the stay in Haiti which is known for its poor medical infrastructure, Ash said.

Home front Brig. Gen. Shalom Ben-Aryeh, commander of the delegation, said that there was hope that the search-and-rescue teams would still succeed in rescuing people trapped beneath the rubble. He said that the pictures from Haiti were reminiscent of the last rescue mission Israel launched to India in 2002.

"We have experience that after several days it is still possible to rescue people," he said, adding that one of the first missions once the teams arrived would be to search for an Israeli woman who is still missing

Israel is already helping Haiti

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Israel sends mission to Haiti to help analyze necessary*

Jerusalem, Jan 13 (EFE) .- Israel today sent a diplomatic and military delegation to Haiti to assess aid needed after the strong earthquake of 7 on the Richter scale that struck on Tuesday the Caribbean country, the military said in a statement .
The mission, which started around noon, is comprised of Israeli military experts in the fields of engineering, medicine, logistics and rescue.
Your goal is to "examine the possibilities to offer help" to mitigate the consequences of the earthquake, which was the epicenter 15 kilometers southwest of the capital, Port au Prince.
There are no data on victims or material damage caused by the quake which hit the poorest country in the Americas, but are circulating the first images of the dead, brought down buildings and rubble.
They also considered sending a field hospital, including doctors and medical equipment, as well as humanitarian aid such as food supplies and tents for those who have remained homeless.