A joint team of experts from the Israel Defense Forces and the Israeli Defense Ministry landed in Bangkok, Thailand, on Sunday morning following the powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake that shook Southeast Asia last week.
The 21-member team, consisting of engineering and civil affairs officers from the National Rescue Unit of the IDF’s Home Front Command and coordinated by the military’s International Cooperation Division, began their mission by conducting a situational assessment and sharing technological expertise with Thai authorities, according to the IDF.
The team is being led by Col. (res.) Yossi Pinto, the commander of the IDF’s reserve national Search and Rescue Unit.
On Saturday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed Israeli National Security Council head Tzachi Hanegbi to dispatch a delegation of experts to help with the rescue of 81 workers trapped under a collapsed high-rise building in Bangkok.
The death toll from the quake, which struck on Friday morning, has exceeded 2,050, according to authorities.
It was the most powerful quake in Myanmar in more than a century, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
