Foreign Ministry urges Israelis to leave Nepal

The Israeli Foreign Ministry urged Israeli travelers in earthquake-hit Nepal to leave on Tel-Aviv-bound El Al planes as soon as possible.

The unofficial announcement came after some 70 Israelis traveling around Nepal arrived in Kathmandu and opted not to board flights home, Ynet reported.

An El Al plane carrying 216 Israelis from Nepal landed at Ben Gurion Airport early Tuesday afternoon. Among the passengers were 15 surrogate-born children caught up in the quake.

Over the past 24 hours, approximately 37 Israelis were rescued from the the Langtang region, with about 20 still awaiting rescue. Some had contact with their families while others didn’t. Teams were making efforts to reach them physically amid difficult weather conditions.

IDF rescue teams as well as private Israeli teams, funded by insurance companies, were operating in Nepal as of Sunday in efforts to locate and rescue Israeli travelers. The Foreign Ministry said that some locals were “thronging” the helicopters, “complicating the rescue efforts.”

Seven stranded hikers were rescued from the Langtang region on Tuesday after some 20 Israelis were rescued by helicopters hired by the Phoenix insurance company from a tourist site near the border with Tibet. A second group of 10 Israeli backpackers was also rescued in the Everest area near the Tibetan border by a rescue team sent by Phoenix, Channel 2 reported. Four Israelis had already been rescued from the slopes of Mount Everest, where they had been trapped in the wake of the earthquake, on Monday.

Nine Israelis remained unaccounted for as of Tuesday night.

Meanwhile, an IDF field hospital in Nepal, Israel’s largest effort of its kind, was set to start operating in the early hours Wednesday morning.

#IDF mission in #Nepal unloads equipment to prepare field hospital in Kathmandu. #IsraelinNepal pic.twitter.com/ErxaceDElD

— IDF Rescue (@IDFrescue) April 28, 2015

An IDF spokesperson said the hospital, located next to the Nepali military hospital, will be operational by 8:30 a.m. local time and treat some of the thousands of injured Nepalis hurt in the 7.8 magnitude quake, which claimed the lives of over 5,000 as of Tuesday afternoon.

The Israeli embassy was coordinating cooperation between the Nepali and Israeli hospitals. The field hospital will have 60 beds and the capacity to treat at least 200 people per day.

The IDF sent a 230-person team, with approximately 130 medical professionals who will operate the field hospital. The remaining soldiers and reservists joined search and rescue operations.

“We landed at dawn here in Kathmandu and immediately unpacked the equipment. As of now we are continuing to get organized, build the field hospital, and see to our other efforts, including the special effort to locate Israelis,” Col. Yoram Laredo reported to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a statement.

#IsraelinNepal working hand in hand #IDF with the Nepal military #NepalQuakeRelief pic.twitter.com/z3Bny5jcX8

— Lt. Col. (R) Peter Lerner (@LTCPeterLerner) April 28, 2015

“Every Israeli who comes to us will have his needs taken care of. I would like to emphasize that we are highly motivated and ready for our task here; we hope to save lives and achieve results,” he said.

Netanyahu told Laredo that the top priority for the Israeli team at the moment was rescuing the Israeli hikers stranded in the Langtang region and in the Everest base camp.

“The most important task at this moment is to rescue the Israelis who are on Mount Everest and to complete the evacuation of the frozen lakes area. I have instructed that the possibility of dropping them equipment, food, clothing and means to keep warm, by plane or helicopter, be considered,” the prime minister said.

Israeli Ambassador to Nepal Yaron Meir told Israel Radio that two helicopters were engaged in a search for Israeli hikers in the remote Langtang National Park.

Meanwhile, around 250 people were feared missing after an avalanche Tuesday hit an area of Nepal that is on a popular trekking route where Israelis were rescued earlier, a local official said.

“An avalanche occurred in the afternoon today in Ghodatabela, an area on the popular Langtang trekking route,” said chief district officer Uddav Prasad Bhattarai.

“It is difficult to say how many are missing, but a preliminary guess is that about 250 might be missing.”

Bhattarai said foreign tourists may have been among those missing after the avalanche, but details remained scant as the area is remote and communications difficult.

Nepal declares 3 days of mourning

Himalayan nation’s Prime Minister Sushil Koirala said Tuesday getting help to remote areas was a “major challenge,” as aid finally began reaching areas that had to fend for themselves since Saturday’s 7.8-magnitude quake.

In a televised address late Tuesday, Koirala declared three days of national mourning for the 5,057 people known to have perished in Nepal alone.

More than 100 people died in neighboring countries such as India and China.

Around 8,000 people had been injured while the United Nations estimated that eight million people had been affected.

Among the dead were 18 climbers who were at Mount Everest base camp when an avalanche triggered by the quake flattened everything in its path. The victims included two American climbers, an Australian and a Chinese.

Countries far and wide have joined the relief effort in what is one of Asia’s poorest countries, with neighboring India playing a leading role.