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Written by Samuel Sokol
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Tuesday, 12 January 2010 19:00 |
Following news of yesterday's tragic earthquake in Haiti, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent an Israeli delegation including Ministry of Foreign Affairs, IDF Home Front Command and IDF Medical Corp Personnel to the Republic of Haiti in order to examine the possibilities of offering aid following the recent earthquake.
Subsequently, the IDF Home Front Command decided to send search and rescue forces to Haiti, in order to aid with the rescue of the victims of the earthquake in the Caribbean country.
Israeli Ambassador to the Dominican Republic Amos Radian has been instructed to proceed to Haiti in order to report on the situation there and the Israeli Embassy in Washington has been instructed to be in contact with American aid officials in order to coordinate humanitarian assistance and rescue activities.
IDF search and rescue forces have been involved in several international rescue operations after natural disasters in the past, such as the Izmit earthquake in Turkey in 1999.
These actions come as Israel is in the midst of the first IDF home front command International Emergency Response Conference (IPRED) which presented new initiatives and developments regarding response and preparedness for emergency situations. The conference was attended by over 200 participants from 35 different countries.
During the first phase of the conference, Col. Dr. Ariel Bar, the Medical Officer of the Home Front Command said that the his department "still don't [sic] have much experience with natural disasters and earthquakes, those are fields in which we can learn a lot from other countries. I believe that the contacts we will make during this conference will help us to learn more in the future."
The second part of the IPRED conference began Wednesday with a biological warfare exercise simulating an attack with biological weapons in the metropolitan Tel Aviv region, with over 1000 participants.
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