IDF Spokesperson Announcement
April 26, 2015
Location : Tel Aviv

IDF Humanitarian Mission to Nepal

A 260 member mission is set to leave for Nepal tonight, Sunday April 26,
2015, in order to provide immediate search, rescue and medical services
following the devastating earthquake that struck the district of Katmandu.

An advanced multi-department medical facility, equipped with approximately
95 tons of humanitarian and medical supplies from Israel and a medical staff
of 122 doctors, nurses and paramedics, will be rapidly established in the
city of Katmandu to provide medical care for disaster casualties. The
facility will include pediatric, surgical, internal medicine, neonatal, and
radiology departments as well as a maternity ward and emergency and
operating rooms. The hospital has the equipment, capacity and manpower to
treat approximately 200 patients each day.

The mission will consist of a search and rescue team from the IDF National
Search and Rescue Unit. The unit founded in 1983, is a highly skilled force
trained to execute special search and rescue missions, both in Israel and
abroad. The unit consists primarily of reservists who are always on call,
with prepared kits to enable immediate departure and a small core of
soldiers in mandatory service. In addition to the rescue teams, the unit
employs doctors, engineers, mechanical engineering equipment operators and
rescue dog handlers.

The mission comprises of officials from the National Search and Rescue Unit
of the Home Front Command and will be lead by the Commander of the Search
and Rescue Corps, Colonel Yarom Laredo. In addition, senior military
physicians will participate in the mission headed by the Deputy Commander of
the IDF Medical Corps, Colonel Tarif Bader.

Head of mission to Nepal, Commander of the Search and Rescue Corps, Colonel
Yarom Laredo on the upcoming humanitarian mission: "We will be making two
main efforts - search and rescue; we will be finding people trapped under
the rubble, and twelve hours later we will begin operating a field hospital…
This is a large, high-end delegation with a considerable staff, including
the 40 doctors and nurses of the field hospital… The delegation will be
flying in two aircrafts, and transporting about 90 tons of equipment."

Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, IDF Spokesman: "The IDF is sending a
mission made up of the IDF's most qualified soldiers and officers from the
Home Front Command as well as professional medical doctors and staff in
order to provide and aid all those in need after the tragedy which took
place earlier this week in Nepal."

Yesterday, Saturday April 25, 2015, a preliminary mission of six search and
rescue and medical experts left for Katmandu in order to form a situation
assessment determining the size and mission to follow. Based on their
assessment the Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Gadi Eizenkot
has ordered to deploy a large-scale mission to the disaster zone today.

Past IDF operations in calamity-struck regions include the mission to the
Typhoon struck Philippines in November 2013. The mission was composed of 148
team members made up of both medical professionals and Home Front command
search and rescue experts. The mission lasted over two weeks and focused on
providing medical treatment to casualties of the Typhoon, treating 2686
patients, and repairing damaged infrastructures such as schools and water
facilities. An additional mission was sent to Haiti in January 2010 which
included a search and rescue team, a maternity ward, intensive care units,
pediatrics, surgeons, and pharmaceutical supplies. In April 2011, an IDF
mission traveled to Japan following a tragic earthquake treating over 220
casualties. In January 2006, 80 soldiers and officers flew to Nairobi,
Kenya, following a building collapse, rescuing two people trapped under
ruins and recovering twelve lost bodies. Additional mission took place in
Turkey 1999 where IDF rescued 12 survivors and recovered 140 bodies, as well
as in Kenya in 1998 where soldiers rescued three people and recovered 95
bodies.