The Israeli rescue teams are to return from Turkey on
Tuesday, as Israel offered to rehabilitate part of the area
damaged by the earthquake. The field hospital set up by the
Israeli Army will operate for some time longer, since there
is a serious danger of epidemics and other medical problems
in the wake of the natural disaster.
The IDF teams rescued 12 survivors and uncovered 146 bodies
at three sites since they arrived there last Wednesday. They
also retrieved the bodies of 11 Israelis. Most of their
efforts were focused in Cinarcik and Yalova, where the
Israelis had been vacationing.
The death toll continues to rise, as workers dig deeper.
After a week, the chances of finding living survivors is very
slim. Many of the foreign rescue teams already left when hope
for finding survivors dimmed, leaving the Turks themselves to
clean up.
Turkish authorities are now estimating that some 40,000
perished. However, this is not a final number and the final
count may be even higher.
There was high drama as the Israeli rescue team saved a 9-
year-old Israeli girl, Shiran Franco, who had been trapped
for four days beneath rubble. Her twin brother, father and
grandparents perished in the quake. Only her mother Iris
survived, rescued after 36 hours. The family had been on
vacation when the disaster struck. The levayas were
held on Monday, though Shiran did not participate as she had
not yet been told of the deaths. She is, however, expected to
participate in the shiva. Initially she had no
recollection of having traveled to Turkey nor any memory of
the earthquake or the ordeal she endured while trapped for
some three days. Doctors and social workers expect to break
the news to her gently, though they say that it is important
for her to grieve properly. Her physical condition was
generally described as good.
The rescue team sent by Israel is part of the Home Front
Command (Pikud Ha'Oref) that was set up after the Gulf
War. This division of the Army is focused on the things that
are necessary to ensure the safety of the civilian population
in time of war. The experience of the Gulf War taught that
this was a task that no one was really responsible for
carrying out, and the Home Front Command was set up as a
result. It specializes in planning and preparation for
managing and caring for the civilian population in time of
war -- a time that is similar to a large disaster. Thus, its
expertise is welcome and appropriate to help out in
unfortunate situations such as the severe earthquake that
struck Turkey.
Monday afternoon, six days after the earthquake, Israeli team
members also pulled out a three-year-old Turkish boy from
beneath the ruins. The boy was detected in the town of
Cinarcik by a Turkish rescue team, which called the IDF to
rescue him.
The boy, Ismail Cimen, whose father and three sisters were
killed in the quake, spent more than six days alone in a dark
nook under a collapsed balcony. Doctors expect him to make a
full recovery.
Another Turkish child was also found alive and rescued by
Turks in the nearby town of Yalova after spending 172 hours
buried by the rubble.
In Cinarcik, the IDF rescue teams and army doctors held a
memorial service for the 11 Israelis and tens of thousands of
Turks who perished. After the ceremony, the rescue unit made
its way back to the stricken city of Golcuk, where rescue
operations were being completed at a major naval base.
