Israeli Rescuers Pull Survivors in Turkey After Complex Operation

Israel’s humanitarian mission to the earthquake-ravaged area in southern Turkey carried out a successful on-site operation in Gaziantep on Wednesday morning.

The complex operation involved pulling out two survivors from the rubble, with one of them having to undergo an emergency leg amputation by the IDF medics.

Earlier on Tuesday night, the Israeli team pulled from beneath the rubble another four people who had survived the two earthquakes on Monday.

Israel’s rescue mission, totaling more than 150 people, led by the IDF Homefront Command under Operation Olive Branches, departed to the disaster zone several hours after the earth shook, arriving there Tuesday morning. Another contingent was sent Tuesday night, with a field hospital expected to be up and running by midweek.

According to reports, the operation will extend to the Syrian side of the border, where there were more than 2,000 reported dead as of Wednesday morning. Although the Israeli medics will not be stepping on Syrian soil, this will have been the first time that Israel publicly operates on Syrian soil as part of a humanitarian mission.