IDF assists in rescue efforts around country

With the storm ravaging Israel entering its third full day Saturday, the IDF stepped in to assist civilian forces in their rescue efforts throughout the country.

The IDF provided military vehicles and professionally trained drivers capable of maneuvering in extreme conditions for evacuating wounded civilians to hospitals, rescuing drivers stuck in the snow, shoveling snow from roads, distributing food and warm cloths, and for reaching all locations unreachable by civilian cars.

Military APCs could be seen plowing through the streets of Safed, helping in clearing roads in the snow-bogged city and transporting civilians to the city’s Ziv Medical Center, which as of Saturday afternoon was inaccessible by civilian vehicles.

IDF forces and vehicles were also scattered around other towns in the north, Jerusalem, and the West Bank, prepared to provide medical and rescue services to anyone who may need it.

On Saturday afternoon, an IAF aircraft evacuated an Israeli woman in labor from the settlement of Yitzhar, in the West Bank, to a hospital.