The Israeli rescue and rescue mission landed at the Badana airport in the earthquake area. After initial preparation, the rescue teams made their way to the disaster areas where they began the rescue operations. During these operations, the forces managed to rescue three civilians alive who were found under the rubble in two locations. The forces continue to work to rescue more civilians.
Alon Lavi, a member of the Foreign Ministry delegation to Turkey, spoke with Anat Davidov on 103FM this evening (Tuesday). At the beginning of the conversation, he said: “We left the airport about four hours ago on our way to the center of the noise, more towards the epicenter of the disaster. The road is a very bumpy road, a collapsed bridge blocked the main axis. We have now already reached the areas that were hit hard by the earthquake and we will soon join forces The rescue of the IDF and the Home Front Command who came to settle here in the area of the epicenter.”
After that, we were asked if it was possible to arrive by helicopter: “At this stage it is not realistic. There are alternative ways, this is a complex operation with a lot of people. Our delegation with the IDF and the Home Front Command numbers 140 people. These are very large amounts and besides that there is a lot of equipment that was flown here. It’s not realistic. We make our way slowly and carefully and in the end we will get there.”
Later, he responded to the question of whether there is fear for the lives of two people from the Jewish community. According to him, “Unfortunately indeed. This is a very small Jewish community, everyone knows everyone. We heard about this yesterday immediately after the event. The disaster happened in a very large area, we must remember, it affected hundreds of thousands of people here, in many cities. Unfortunately At the moment they have not been able to contact them, their house was damaged so there is a very serious fear for their lives. We cannot publish details, but we are members of the Jewish community, which is very small.”
In addition, Lavi also commented on the dimensions of the destruction in Turkey after the earthquake: “The closer we got, you could see it more and more clearly. Where we are now standing, we see houses that collapsed. The neighbors here took to show their neighbor’s house that collapsed, there is a house of an entire family that was damaged that just It completely collapsed. In addition, you can see gas stations blown up, apparently the fuel is starting to run out, so there are very long queues, traffic jams due to the disruption of the roads.”
“The closer you get, the more you see it in a very, very direct and direct way, the dimensions of the destruction. Unfortunately, as time passes, the chances of being saved are small, you manage to gather information, this is the first step, to gather information about who was hurt, who was not hurt. Those who were not hurt give details about Others. That’s how you manage to map. At the same time, the rescue operations are progressing and the rescue operations are progressing both in rescuing lives and those who didn’t survive, and that’s how the numbers actually go up.”
Earthquake in Turkey (Photo: REUTERS/Dilara Senkaya)
“It’s much worse than what you see in the pictures”
Also, Israel’s ambassador to Turkey, Irit Lilian, spoke with Aryeh Eldad and Ben Caspit on 103FM and referred to the arrival of dozens of delegations to the country. According to her, “Let’s start with the fact that Turkey is a country with seven disasters, natural disasters, including earthquakes. They are generally very prepared. There is also criticism here, also towards the emergency authorities, towards people who are still trapped and angry that they are not being reached, but overall it is a very complicated logistics. Almost 50 delegations from all over the world, all of them were received and transported, even if it takes more time to their places of activity. I think You can remove your hat from them.”
After that, she referred to the danger to the lives of two of the Jewish community” “Yes, by and large the entire region of Eastern Turkey is an area where the Jewish presence here is very ancient. There is a very ancient Jewish tradition there, but in terms of Jewish presence at the present time it is very poor. Very small, isolated communities, each a little lonely. The main Turkish Jewish community in Istanbul managed to evacuate a large part of the people from the isolated places. Unfortunately the president of the community and his wife are missing, we are very afraid for their lives. They saw their house destroyed. The brother is there, their daughter is on her way from the country. We are waiting for good news, but unfortunately the picture does not look very optimistic.”
Later, she was asked if an IDF field hospital was a request from Turkey. According to her, “Yes. Everything we prepared was prepared at the special headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we prepared the equipment and necessities according to the requests of the Turks. We did not force anyone. The only thing that the hospital themselves told us was ‘wait, we need to have a better ability to receive and prepare the area for receiving the hospital’. The hospital will arrive tomorrow in the morning, we hope that by the evening hours it will be able to start and function.”
At the end, she said: “It’s unimaginable, the area is inhabited by almost 13 million people. It’s ten districts that were affected. Cities were leveled, whole neighborhoods were left with nothing left. Unfortunately, the numbers only keep rising. We can only hope and wish that some people managed to be saved, but we have to remember that Those who rescued themselves, who lost their homes, are in terrible cold. The cold itself may collapse spaces. Sewage systems, gas, do not exist in these cities. There is no fuel, no food. It is very problematic.”
Assisted in the preparation of the article: Shani Romano 103fm