ISRAEL TO THE RESCUE!

ICEJ SUPPORTS ISRAEL’S TOP RESPONDERS WITH RELIEF EFFORTS IN TURKEY

BY DAVID PARSONS, ICEJ VICE PRESIDENT & SENIOR SPOKESMAN

The devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria in early February left over 45,000 dead and thousands more injured or buried in the massive rubble of destroyed towns and villages. The powerful tremors were also felt across Israel, prompting Israeli search-andrescue teams to be among the first to arrive on the scene of a foreign disaster once again.

The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem quickly partnered with a proven Israeli firstresponder organisation – United Hatzalah of Israel – to help bring aid and emergency services to the hardest hit regions of Turkey. The ICEJ’s support is being used to provide sorely needed warm clothing, along with firstaid kits, oxygen tanks, defibrillators and other emergency medical equipment.

Home Front Command and other Israeli firstresponders and managed to pull 19 people from the rubble of collapsed buildings, while treating scores of others for their injuries.

Sadly, the death toll in both Turkey and Syria is still rising, and the suffering and loss among the survivors is immense. Thus, we want to continue to support the aid and relief efforts of Israeli organisations in response to this ongoing tragedy.

By giving towards these efforts, you not only are demonstrating Christian compassion and helping those in desperate need, but you also are enabling Israeli humanitarian relief missions to have an even greater impact and thereby improve Israel’s standing in the eyes of the world.

The Israeli teams in Turkey eventually called an end to the search-and-rescue phase of their earthquake response, as the freezing temperatures and passage of nearly a week made it unlikely they would find more people trapped alive.

However, the humanitarian relief phase of Israel’s response to the Turkey earthquakes is continuing, and United Hatzalah is sending more medical and humanitarian aid to the region.

The ICEJ has supported similar Israeli rescue and relief missions following the Haiti earthquake of 2010, the Philippines typhoon of 2013, and the Nepal earthquake of 2015, all of which had a great positive impact for Israel.

United Hatzalah has built an impressive reputation globally for being the very first responders on the scene of accidents and terror attacks in Israel, with their 6,500 volunteer paramedics and EMTs nationwide usually arriving within three minutes of any emergency calls. This time, they dispatched some of their top medics, first-aid, and search-and-rescue teams to assist in the most devastated areas of Turkey.

The United Hatzalah rescue team began working alongside similar units from the IDF

In addition, the ICEJ was approached by The Jewish Agency for Israel to assist local Jewish communities in the impacted regions, including a number of Jewish families that were left homeless by the earthquakes. The Christian Embassy has agreed to help evacuate and resettle some of these displaced Jewish families elsewhere.

One greatly affected Turkish Jewish community was in Antakya, where the Jewish presence dates back over 2,500 years. This is actually the biblical town of “Antioch” mentioned in Acts chapters 11 and 13, where “the disciples were first called Christians…” (Acts 11:26)

Meanwhile, we also have established contacts with Turkish pastors and churches in the earthquake zone and will be assisting them with humanitarian relief aid. They are reporting miracles and changed lives even amid this immense tragedy, so it will be good to support their ‘witness’ to their mostly Muslim neighbours in this way.

So, please give generously as we join with our kind-hearted Israeli partners and local Turkish pastors in helping those shattered by the devastating earthquakes in Turkey.