The IDF National Search and Rescue Unit takes its lifesaving proficiency global

Battling to save lives in natural disasters and building collapses the world over, this special unit is also burnishing Israel’s image abroad.

By JOSH HASTEN
IDF Personnel treat a victim of the earthquake in Haiti in 2010. (photo credit: IDF SPOKESMAN'S OFFICE)
IDF Personnel treat a victim of the earthquake in Haiti in 2010.
(photo credit: IDF SPOKESMAN'S OFFICE)
The IDF Home Front Command is charged with protecting Israel’s civilian population during emergency situations. From wars and terror attacks to natural disasters, this unit is on-call 24/7, always prepared to take action during times of crisis with a clear but arduous mission: saving lives.
But over the past 30 years, one highly skilled unit of this command, made up exclusively of reserve soldiers, has built a distinguished reputation for intervening on behalf of humanity – not only in the Jewish state, but in countries across the globe.
Known as the IDF National Search and Rescue Unit, this group of highly dedicated professionals – doctors, engineers, mechanical equipment operators, rescue dog handlers and more – has been called into countries including Haiti, Ghana, Japan, the Philippines and many others both near and far, to offer emergency humanitarian assistance.
The current commander of the unit is Col. Ramtin Sebti, who has been a part of the unit since 1993.
In a conversation with The Jerusalem Post, Sebti says he has personally taken part in seven humanitarian missions abroad, and since assuming his current position as unit head has been in charge of several of those missions.
Most recently, the unit sprang into action this past November when Super Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest storms ever to make landfall, left a path of destruction in the Philippines and other countries in Southeast Asia, claiming over 10,000 lives and leaving almost a million people homeless.
Shortly after the storm, Sebti dispatched two planes to the Philippines carrying a delegation of 160 emergency personnel and equipment, along with 100 tons of humanitarian and medical supplies, to aid in the relief effort. The Israeli group was on the ground for two weeks, operating a hospital which treated over 3,000 patients, including many children.
Sebti says that another primary task of the mission was “to help repair the damaged [drinking] water infrastructure in residences, buildings and schools, in order to help get life back to normal. We also gave local city and school officials workshops on how to get their lives back on track.”
Lt.-Col. Golan Vach was the operations officer on the mission to the Philippines, under Sebti’s command.
A career soldier currently with the Home Front Command, he also took part in the mission to Haiti.
He describes for the Post the difficult and trauma-inducing experiences he has witnessed while extracting victims from collapsed structures in both missions.
“The rescue operations are very traumatic,” he says. “This isn’t a situation like a doctor in a hospital who arrives in an operating theater, and is handed a knife to go into surgery or to deliver a baby. There is a lot of hard work involved in reaching and then saving a victim.”
Vach details the emotions he experienced during a rescue involving a building collapse following the Haiti earthquake, in which a 56-year-old man was trapped under a building for nine hours. “It was like a battle, where we were doing what we could to dig this man up out of a grave, as all the while he was being pulled back down. When we finally got him out, it was extremely moving for us; it was as if we helped birth him and bring him into the world.”
Sebti goes on to detail several other missions. In November 2012, a six-member search-and-rescue force was sent to the Ghanaian capital of Accra, to help extract trapped victims from a five-story shopping mall collapse. The team was in the air on its way to help within a matter of hours.
In July of that year, a team was sent to Burgas, Bulgaria, following the terrorist bus bombing at the airport targeting a group of Israeli tourists – which killed five along with their driver, and wounded 32. The group’s mission in this catastrophe was to assist their countrymen wounded in a foreign country, and to bring them back home to receive medical treatment.
While other countries also often respond to humanitarian crises abroad, Sebti believes that the IDF Search and Rescue Unit is a step above the rest. A perfect supporting example would be the international praise and recognition Israel received for traveling halfway across the world to set up an advanced field hospital, saving lives and delivering babies, following the devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake which killed over 100,000 people (the exact figure is in dispute).
Sebti believes that Israel’s team is unique is this arena for two reasons. “Firstly, we are always amongst the first in the field,” he says. “Within just a matter of hours, we can have a team dispatched anywhere in the world.”
He stresses the importance of speed when it comes to saving lives – using a building collapse (whether a result of natural disaster or human negligence) as an example. “Ninety percent of those rescued in a building collapse are saved in the first 48 hours,” he says.
“After that time period, the hope for finding survivors greatly diminishes. That is why speed is key.”
Sebti has nothing but praise for the reservists in his unit, who time and time again drop everything and arrive prepared for their missions in a matter of hours.
“The second reason we are at an advantage is our proficiency. Whether it’s setting up a field hospital, dealing with water issues or feeding those in need, we are prepared to give the aid that’s required.”
While the most important aspect of the unit is to save lives, Sebti believes the actions of his colleagues are without a doubt making a dent in Israel’s hasbara (public diplomacy) efforts.
“These delegations are one of the best hasbara tools out there,” he says. “We arrive in these places with a bottom line [saving lives], without any other agendas, and are free from that stress. Also, we don’t differentiate between Israeli lives and the lives of citizens of other nations. So yes, I’m a [hasbara] tool for Israel.”
Vach says that on his missions to Haiti and the Philippines, in both cases the local populations – comprised of devout Christians – viewed the Israeli delegations as almost “metaphysical beings,” saviors sent by God to help.
“A director of a school in one of the towns in the Philippines described the typhoon as being of biblical proportions, like the story of Noah. She thought the world was going to end. She told us that she ‘cried and prayed to Jesus for help, and then the next day, the Jews arrived, the sons of God, and it was like a story from the Bible.’” Vach adds that during the rescue mission in Haiti, he was told by the locals that it was as if the Israelis “came from heaven,” also something straight out of a Bible story.
While there are many examples of success stories, Sebti does recognize that there are some limitations to his unit’s efforts. In some countries – those without diplomatic relations with Israel – sometimes help is denied, while at the same time, even friendly nations request that his team stay at home.
The perfect example would be shortly after the 9/11 attacks on America, when Israel offered to send an aid team to the US, but the offer was rebuffed.
“We had a crew together already on airplanes at Ben-Gurion [Airport], ready to take off for the US.
We sat on the planes for about four to six hours, but were then told not to come,” says Sebti, noting he didn’t take it personally and wasn’t disappointed that the US decided to carry out the emergency operations on its own.
Throughout the years of saving lives, there are several incidents that have stuck with him. One was the devastating earthquake near Izmit, Turkey, killing 17,000. Sebti says the Israeli delegation that arrived on the scene saved 12 people buried in the rubble, including Shiran Franco, a nine-year-old Israeli girl who was on vacation with her family when the quake struck.
Franco miraculously survived in an air pocket under the wreckage for four days, and was finally rescued by Israeli emergency workers.
Sebti also has vivid memories of the 2001 Versailles wedding hall disaster in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Talpiot that claimed 23 lives, as well as this incident: “I will never forget trying to save a seven- year-old boy trapped in his bed sometime in the 1990s in Kibbutz Hafetz Haim, when a bus plowed into the family home.”
Even with those difficult memories, Sebti says, “I try to focus on the good parts, when people are saved.
Those images are the ones that remain with me.”
And with those positive images and success stories, Sebti is quick to credit the dedicated members of his unit. “Our unit is essentially a group of dedicated volunteers who are strong-willed and have a great sense of Zionism in their duty. That is the true character of the unit. These are older people, reservists who stick with it. Their experience, expertise and professionalism are vast.”
In fact, Sebti says that the IDF Search and Rescue Unit is now collaborating with other similar forces from various countries to share their know-how.
A few weeks ago, a group of US National Guardsmen and Marines arrived in Israel for a joint training session.
The two groups have been holding annual trainings, rotating annually between Israel and the US.
Sebti adds that recently German rescue teams have also been in Israel to learn the latest techniques. “Collaboration and cooperation with others enhances the learning and expands our capabilities.”