Posted on 12/27/2004 6:04:21 AM PST by IAF ThunderPilot
The death toll from Sunday's natural disaster in Southeast Asia has reached 23,000, of them 12,000 in Sri Lanka, 6,000 in India, 4,700 in Indonesia and over 800 in Thailand.
In a press conference held Monday afternoon at the Foreign Ministry, Deputy Director General Nissim Ben-Sheetrit said that so far 450 Israelis in the region have been contacted. Ministry officials said earlier that over 500 were still unaccounted for.
According to Ben-Sheetrit, "I cannot say with certainty that there are no Israeli fatalities. We are examining this possibility and I hope there would not be any. Currently, between 7 and 14 Israelis are known to have been injured".
Israeli Foreign Ministry officials and doctors flew to Southeast Asia on Monday to search for missing Israeli tourists and provide assistance to countries struck by a massive earthquake and tidal waves.
Israeli army doctors are to offer medical assistance in Thailand and Sri Lanka, and army teams will look for missing Israelis in southern India.
Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom told Israel Radio Monday that there were a limited number of Israeli casualties and possibly fatalities in the tsunamis that struck the region.
According to Shalom, the number of Israeli tourists injured in the quake appeared to be lower than what had been initially believed.
Four Israeli tourists were reported as missing on Monday morning, acting Israeli Consul in Bangkok, Shlomi Kaufman, told Army Radio. According to Kaufman, "We received reports from people who said they had witnessed that something happened to those four".
Ten Israelis are hospitalized in hospitals in and around the southern Thai island of Phuket. All sustained light to moderate injuries.
In addition, it appears there are no foreign casualties on the islands of Andaman in the Indian Ocean. Dozens of Israelis are known to be on that island.
The Foreign Ministry situation room in Jerusalem: 02 5303155.
Shalom said Israel would assist its citizens in every way possible and also offered Israel's assistance to the nations struck by the natural disaster. The Ministry is focusing on getting Israelis onto buses in Bangkok, from where they will be flown to Israel.
Israel's national carrier, EL AL, said it would not charge extra fees or cancellation fees to people wishing to push back planned flights to Thailand, and added it would expedite the return flights of Israelis from Bangkok.
Israelis have so far not appeared on a list of foreign nationals killed in the disaster published by the Thailand Police. Most Israelis are reported to have made their way to Ko Phangang, far from the afflicted areas, for a series of full moon parties that started on Christmas Eve.
Foreign Ministry Director-General Ron Prosor said that Israel would dispatch $100,000 worth of medicine and food to Thailand and India, Israel Radio reported. In addition, a Foreign Ministry delegation including three top doctors from the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem and an officer from the Home Front Command departed for the area to provide emergency assistance.
The death toll from the most powerful earthquake in four decades climbed steadily throughout Sunday as authorities counted bodies washed up on beaches and left hanging like ragdolls from trees. Foreign tourists were among the dead and the thousands of others who were reported missing. Tens of thousands fled the coasts for higher ground, fearing aftershocks and further flood surges.
On Monday afternoon, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz asked the Israel Defense Forces to ready a medical relief team for immediate dispatch to Thailand.
The IDF is also preparing to send humanitarian aid to the region, primarily Sri Lanka. The Defense Ministry said Monday that the teams would be sent as soon as their coordination with the ministry were completed.
Mofaz offered aid of two kinds - a search and rescue team from the Home Front Command, as well as consignments of food and medicines.
The number of dead is all over the place. Some news site have it anywhere from 8,500 to 23,600.
Anyone have a link to an official source?
For all the dissing we do of the U.S. government, the USGS is one of the bright spots. They do their job very well and are the standard the rest of the world goes by.
They do not even have radio contact to whole islands yet. Many Indoneasian islands are just low lying sand spits in the middle of the sea. The death toll may climb much higher in the comming week.
Btw, your profile page is very nice. I enjoyed all the neat pictures. :)
I'm sure Burma will never reveal her death toll. Idiots!
Burma by all accounts doesn't have a high death toll.Most news agencies are saying between 30 to 100.They were far north of the affected region,so any waves would have been much weaker.Bangladesh(which is pretty much in the same region) has reported only 2 casualities till now.
How long will it be before President Bush and/or "global warming" gets the blame for this?
My God. My heart sank when I saw that picture.
I'm trying to figure out how Somalia was devastated and Diego Garcia was unaffected.
Dead Western tourists at the Thailand seaside resort.
The question is: How long before Jerry Falwell blames gays?
About the length of time it takes you to get banned from Free Republic?
Yeah, your probably about right.
Btw: I'm an American in Yokohama.
And yes, I do see the irony.
Oil companies are to blame. They removed all the grease from the rocks, and this is what happens.
Deigo Garcia is surrounded by deep water. The tsunami just passes around it.
Good point. Thank you for bringing it up. I'll put forth a $100 pledge to you (through Pay Pal) if in the next 48 hours, Jerry Falwell "blames this on gays."
I however publicly call for you to make a similar pledge (to me) in the amount of $100, (payable through Pay Pal) if in the next 48 hours, the church or associations run by Jerry Falwell (or TRBC Missions or other related group under his direction) starts some humanitarian charitable drive to assist the victims of the Tsunami.
Care to wager?
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