Rescue mission

Led by IDF Brig. Gen. Elad Edri, the Israeli delegation has been providing engineering experts to assess the vulnerability of damaged buildings that are still standing.

“To be abducted in Athens on an Air France plane makes sense,” Gonen said. “But to be abducted at home, in the State of Israel, it was too much.”

“We go to every site where information is received about people who were inside buildings that collapsed,” said Eran Magen, head of the rescue delegation.

Fifty years after Entebbe, Doron Almog revisits war, family, loss, and the profound lessons his son Eran taught him about humanity, dignity, and shared responsibility.

"In the end, we believe the days have already passed and that what we will find now is death," said Major Jorge Montanero, leader of the EQ11 team from Guayaquil, located on Ecuador's Pacific coast.

“It must be understood that security coordination with a country with which we have no ties, where we have no embassy and no logistical or diplomatic rear base, is far more difficult," Magen said.

Ambassador Yoed Magen, who grew up in Venezuela, will lead the Foreign Ministry’s activities, while Home Front Command Chief of Staff Brig.-Gen. Elad Edri will command the IDF delegation.

Residents in Caracas were woken by a new aftershock as Venezuela’s earthquake death toll approached 1,500.

The delegation comprises 16 rescue personnel, along with other professionals from the Magen - Disaster & Emergency Management Company, Israel's Ready for Rescue non-profit, and SmartAID.

The US Geological Survey estimated more than 10,000 deaths were possible from the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 quakes, which would place them among Latin America's deadliest of the last century.