Israel Sends Additional Medical Aid to Earthquake-Hit Colombia

Israel's Foreign Ministry announced today (Thursday) that Israel will send an additional 5-ton aid shipment to Colombia after Shabbat, including medical equipment. The shipment is being sent alongside the ongoing work of the Home Front Command and the Foreign Ministry's rescue and humanitarian aid delegation.

As previously reported, the Israeli delegation has been operating in Colombia for about a week. The Foreign Ministry said the new equipment shipment will be sent at the instruction of Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar, in cooperation with the Health Ministry.

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar said: "Israel will continue to stand alongside its friend Colombia and the Colombian people and assist them to the best of its ability."

It should be noted that since the delegation's operation began, its teams have reached a significant number of missing people at the disaster sites. The work is being carried out in cooperation with local authorities, with the goal of assisting Colombian authorities and families searching for their loved ones, and concentrating search efforts at sites affected by the earthquake.

Alongside the rescue effort, the delegation's engineers are mapping and sorting the damaged buildings. The work is being carried out together with Colombian teams and other international teams operating in the area. As part of the effort, the condition of damaged structures is being assessed to determine which can be returned to use and which require further attention because of the damage they sustained.

The IDF Spokesperson added that, as part of its cooperation with local authorities, the delegation is also making knowledge and technological tools available to Colombia to help manage the situational picture and the data collected following the disaster. These tools are used, among other things, to set priorities and support the decision-making processes of those handling the incident.