The IDF aid delegation to Haiti – consisting of around 220 soldiers and officers, including 120 medical staff (40 doctors, 20 paramedics and 24 nurses, as well as medics and medical technicians) – left Israel overnight with equipment for setting up an emergency field hospital.
The original plan was for the IDF to first send a Home Front Command rescue team, followed by medical teams, but after speaking with Haitian authorities, the army and Foreign Ministry decided that Haiti’s most pressing need was extra medical staff, given that nearly every hospital in Haiti was destroyed in Tuesday’s earthquake.
Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)
1:40PM: According to the London-based newspaper Asharq Alawsat, Israel has assured Lebanon that increased IDF troops and army exercises along the Lebanese border are intended as preparation for military maneuvers, and not as preparation for any intended butt-kicking.
