A team of specialist search-and-rescue reservists in the Israeli military arrived on Sunday to help locate survivors and recover bodies at the site of a collapsed Florida condo building.
The beachfront tower collapsed on Thursday, killing at least nine people. 152 are still missing.
According to Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Nachman Shai, the Israeli delegation was sent at the behest of Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. He added they are highly experienced in disaster relief.
“This is one of the best, if not the best and most experienced… Israeli rescue team,” Shai said while visiting the site Sunday. “They have been all over the world in many similar situations.”
Members of the South Florida Urban Search and Rescue team look for possible survivors in the partially collapsed 12-story Champlain Towers South condo building in Surfside, Florida. The death toll after the collapse of a Florida apartment tower has risen to nine, the local mayor said on June 27, 2021, more than three days after the building pancaked as residents slept. (GIORGIO VIERA/AFP via Getty)
The team consists of engineering experts from Israel’s Home Front Command, the Israel Defense Forces said, and are using both mechanical tools and even their hands to locate bodies and survivors.
According to one delegation official, there is still hope to rescue people alive.
“We are here to bring hope,” said Elad Edri. “After the earthquake in Haiti, we rescued someone after 108 hours. So there is still a chance.”
The international branch of Israel’s EMT service Magen David Adom has also been working around the clock at the disaster site, the Times of Israel reported.
“I came to Miami to connect the community and families to the forces at the scene and in Israel and help in any way possible during the crisis,” the report quoted MDA paramedic Uriel Goldberg, who flew in from Israel on Friday, as saying. “The teams work around the clock with great commitment, while being careful in a complex and dangerous scene and in very complex field conditions.”
Minister Shai also met with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as well as Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Cava Levine, and expressed Israel’s readiness to take part in all rescue efforts.
“I was instructed by the prime minister to check what the needs are and tell you that we are here and ready. There are no limits to what we are ready to offer,” Shai told DeSantis. “We brought you our best people. We chose carefully each one of these individuals, who come with relevant experiences from past events. If you need another 100, we have them.”
People place support signs for first responders near the partially collapsed building in Surfside, Florida, north of Miami Beach. The death toll after the collapse of a Florida apartment tower has risen to nine, officials said Sunday, with more than 150 people still missing and their weary families waiting more than three days afterwards for information as to their fate. (CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty)
Speaking to the Jewish Insider, Shai reiterated that it was Israel’s duty to help.
“There’s a message here that I believe should be delivered, that when you’re in trouble, we are there to help,” Shai said. “When we are in trouble, you are coming to help us. I remember that every single opportunity that is needed any assistance, any help from the United States with any administration — by the way, Republican, Democrats, in general — you’re always there for us.”
According to the report, as many as 40 Jews are among the more than 150 people that are missing or dead. Shai prayed with some of the Jewish families awaiting to hear word of their loved ones.
“I was told that they raised the question, ‘Will Israel come to help us?’ I don’t think Italians will ask this question when it comes to Italy, and I don’t think Irish will,” Shai said. “But when it comes to Jews, they look at Israel as a source of hope, power.”
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