Largest Israeli humanitarian mission since October 7 heads to Jamaica

Multiple Jewish and Israeli aid organizations were deployed to Jamaica in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa in what was “the largest mission of Israeli humanitarian groups abroad since October 7,” the Society for International Development (SID-Israel) announced in a statement last week.

SID-Israel, which dubbed the mission “one of the most significant international relief efforts mounted by Israeli aid organizations in recent years,” is the umbrella organization of Israel’s humanitarian aid sector.

Teams from IsraAID, Natan, Worldwide Disaster Relief, Early Starters International, Cadena, as well as a team from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and GRID, joined international relief efforts.

Hurricane Melissa, the third-biggest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded, caused devastation in multiple Caribbean countries, causing significant damage to countries like Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic, where hundreds of thousands went without water or electricity.

Estimates of the cost of rebuilding across the region could reach $50 billion, according to early assessments.

Still, the Category 5 tropical cyclone left its biggest mark on Jamaica, where over 80 people were killed and around 70% of the island was left without water or electricity.  Just days after the impact, Israeli aid organizations flew to Jamaica to provide humanitarian assistance to the residents of the island who lacked basic resources.

Days later, an official Israeli delegation arrived on the island at the order of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The delegation included approximately 30 medical professionals and was headed by Deputy Director-General of the Ministry of Health Dr. Sefi Mandelovich and Professor Ofer Marin, Director of Shaare Zedek Medical Center.

Aid provided by the six organizations includes a wide range of help, from providing food and water to maintaining educational centers for children unable to attend school.

For example, IsraAID dispatched nine volunteers to distribute emergency resources, and Cadena “deployed volunteers to distribute food, solar lamps, and pallets of construction materials and tools” according to the statement.

Early Starters International, an educational humanitarian organization, dispatched a delegation to build temporary schools for children and families and to train educators in “trauma-responsive practices.”

One of the group’s members, Yuli Kromchenko, commented that “[seeing] children sleeping in a science lab that had been turned into a shelter, that’s the moment you realize how critical it is to restore a safe and stable space for them.”

Ayelet Levin-Karp, CEO of SID-Israel, noted that "[the] speed of the response, and the fact that six Israeli organizations are operating in the same disaster zone, is both moving and unprecedented since October 7.

It reflects the deep commitment of Israeli civil society to universal values of solidarity and humanitarian aid, even as Israel itself is still recovering from the horrors of the war,” she said.

“This is an extraordinary demonstration of human compassion by Israeli civil society and a moral compass for the kind of nation we aspire to be within the family of nations.”=