About 450 requests for emergency rescue reached the Knesset, which provided assistance to the citizens of Ukraine immediately after the start of the fighting. Along with challenging requests for complex rescues of those who are unable to escape on their own, in recent days there have been increasing calls to the center about Jews who died in the war zones and their family members need ZAKA help in bringing them to Jewish burials.
In one of the inquiries that reached the emergency center, ZAKA rescuers were asked to assist in rescuing a nursing elderly woman in the bombed-out city of Bocha. Although the mines have not yet been cleared from the streets, in order to check on the well-being of the nursing elderly woman who was abandoned by the caregiver. Unfortunately, the ambulance staff hired by the ZAKA entered the house and found the elderly woman lifeless.
In another request handled at the ZAKA hotline, ZAKA volunteers assisted in bringing for the burial of a Jew who was rescued from Kharkov and died at a hospital in Poland, at the request of his niece who was rescued with him and insisted on conducting a Jewish burial according to Halacha despite being positive for Corona. Together with local Jews, they accompanied the family members and the rabbis of Poland in carrying out the actions necessary to bring the Jew to a Jewish burial, under the guidance of Rabbi Roja, chairman of the ZAKA Rabbinical Committee. The family of the deceased: “If he had stayed in Kharkov, he would have had no chance of being buried with a Jewish minyan or saying Kaddish for the upliftment of his soul.”
The ZAKA aid center notes that so far most of the referrals have sought to rescue the helpless, but in recent days there have been increasing requests to help locate missing persons who are unfortunately found dead, as well as the many casualties killed and their bodies found in the streets.