Israel to send search and rescue delegation to Thailand after deadly earthquake
Team of 22 set to depart Saturday night to help build ‘intelligence picture’ for search and rescue efforts
Israel will send a delegation of experts to Thailand to assist in search and rescue efforts following a major earthquake in the region.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the move, in coordination with the Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry, a Saturday statement said.
The team, led by Col. (res.) Yossi Pinto, the commander of the IDF’s reserve national search-and-rescue unit, will include another 21 members. They were set to depart on an El Al flight Saturday night at 10:30 p.m.
The statement said the delegation would assist with “building an intelligence picture” for search and rescue and engineering efforts at sites of destruction and work to rescue those trapped.
The death toll from a huge earthquake that hit Myanmar and Thailand passed 1,600 on Saturday as rescuers dug through the rubble of collapsed buildings in a desperate search for survivors.
Multiple countries have vowed to send assistance to the countries.
The shallow 7.7-magnitude quake struck northwest of the city of Sagaing in central Myanmar early Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a 6.7-magnitude aftershock.
The quake destroyed buildings, downed bridges, and buckled roads across swaths of Myanmar, with massive destruction seen in Mandalay, the country’s second biggest city and home to more than 1.7 million people.
“We need aid,” said Thar Aye, 68, a Mandalay resident. “We don’t have enough of anything.”
At least 1,644 people were killed and more than 3,400 injured in Myanmar, with at least 139 more missing, the ruling junta said in a statement. Around 10 more deaths have been confirmed in Bangkok.
But with communications badly disrupted, the true scale of the disaster is only starting to emerge from the isolated military-ruled state, and the toll is expected to rise significantly.
In Mandalay, AFP journalists saw rescuers pull a woman alive from the remains of one apartment block where a Red Cross official said more than 90 people could be trapped.
After hours of painstaking work at the Sky Villa Condominium, half of whose 12 stories were flattened by the quake, Phyu Lay Khaing, 30, was brought out and carried by stretcher to be embraced by her husband and taken to hospital.
Another woman at the apartment block was less fortunate. Her 20-year-old son, an employee at the bulding, is still missing.
“We cannot find him yet. I only have this child — I feel so heartbroken,” said Min Min Khine, 56, a staff cook at the building.
“He ate at my dining room and said goodbye. Then he left and the earthquake happened. If he was with me, he might have escaped like me,” she told AFP.
Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing issued an exceptionally rare appeal for international aid on Friday, indicating the severity of the calamity. Previous military governments have shunned foreign assistance, even after major natural disasters.
Offers of foreign assistance began coming in, with President Donald Trump pledging US help.
Aid agencies have warned that Myanmar is unprepared to deal with a disaster of this magnitude. Some 3.5 million people were displaced by the raging civil war, many at risk of hunger, even before the quake struck.
The Times of Israel Community.