ZAKA sends team for search and rescue plus supply distribution and land evaluation

ZAKA, Israel’s volunteer emergency response organization focused on search, rescue, and recovery work, sent an international team to Venezuela after receiving a direct request for assistance from local authorities, according to Israel’s Tazpit Press Service.

The team reached Venezuela on June 29, the group announced on social media.

Responders joined Venezuelan officials to carry out search and rescue inside damaged buildings while engineers checked structures for safety so residents could decide whether to return, TV7 reported. Volunteers handed out tents, medicine, and shelf stable food and arranged for specialist physicians to support hospitals facing high patient numbers.

The organization is also reviewing land suitable for a new residential area to house families displaced by the twin earthquakes of 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude that left as many as 16,740 people injured.

ZAKA coordinated with an Israeli aid delegation that included staff from the Foreign Ministry, the IDF Home Front Command, and the National Emergency Management Authority.

A remote support group of 20 specialists in Israel helped prepare a long term rebuilding plan that has already been shown to Venezuela’s infrastructure minister and is due to reach Acting President Delcy Rodríguez in the coming days.

Alongside practical help ZAKA offers Venezuelans renewed spirit

Team members also focused on lifting morale. Yosef Garmon, ZAKA director for Latin America, told TPS that a local man asked rescuers to recite psalms beside his mother’s body.

One resident noted that while other groups arrived with more equipment or larger numbers, ZAKA delivered the greatest sense of encouragement and optimism. Garmon added that the mission involves more than restoring structures because the volunteers also work to renew people’s spirit.