Israeli aid to Japan

Israeli aid to Japan

25 March 2011

Communicated by MFA Spokesman’s Bureau

On Saturday night, 26 March, a shipment of aid from Israel will be flown to Japan. The aid was organized jointly by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defense and the Home Front Command.

A delegation of 50 people from the Home Front Command and the IDF Medical Corps will accompany 18 tons of aid that includes blankets, coats, gloves and portable toilets.

Israel is the one of the first states to send a medical team to Japan. Until now a few rescue teams from a limited number of countries have been operating in Japan, but no medical teams. The Home Front Command’s medical delegation will be stationed in the city of Kurihara, in the Miyagi prefecture about six hours north of Tokyo, an area which was hit hard by the tsunami. The plan is to set up a field clinic to treat the wounded and refugees concentrated in that area. All of the arrangements for the medical team’s arrival and operation vis-à-vis the Japanese authorities are being coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Israeli embassy in Tokyo.

The aid shipment of essential items (10,000 coats, 6,000 blankets, 8,000 pairs of gloves and 150 portable toilets) was coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, according to the request of the Japanese National Disaster Center, and sent in cooperation with the Ministry of Defense.

Japan noted that Israel is one of the first countries to send aid as per the needs and request of the Japanese.

The Japanese ambassador in Israel, HE Haruhisa Takeuchi, expressed deep gratitude, on behalf of the government and people of Japan, for the Israeli aid and said that the Israeli government’s response to the Japanese government’s requests for aid was very quick.

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