The IDF started mapping out and categorizing Venezuela’s around 1,300 buildings as either due to be demolished or potentially salvageable despite being damaged, at 3 p.m. Israel time on Monday, following the tragic June 24 earthquakes that killed at least 3,300 people and likely thousands more.
Led by IDF Brig.-Gen. Elad Edri, the Israeli delegation is much smaller and has a different focus than recent missions to Turkey and elsewhere.
Edri noted that if, in some past missions, the IDF delegation had over 400 members assisting, this delegation has only around 30, upon Venezuela’s request.
If, in other instances, the IDF has been used for immediate rescue missions, Edri said that in Venezuela, the IDF’s focus has been providing engineering experts to assess the vulnerability of buildings that were damaged but still standing.
IDF's focus in Venezuela centered around providing engineering
In addition, Edri explained that the IDF engineers have provided guidance to Venezuela about what to do with the debris from damaged buildings.
According to multiple options that IDF engineers offered to the Venezuelan government, he stated that Caracas decided to attempt to reincorporate debris into later building efforts via a recycling process.
Another example of how this operation has been different is that IDF Col. Golan Vach, who ran the Turkey rescue mission in 2023 and also managed the mission to find the body of Israel’s final hostage, Ran Gvili, in early 2026, has not been involved.
Had this been a regular rescue mission, it is possible that he might have been.
Venezuela received IDF soldiers with open arms
Nevertheless, Edri said that Venezuela has received the smaller expert team with open arms. He said that the soldiers have kept their uniforms with their Israeli symbols prominently displayed, and that they have visited the 5,000-member Venezuelan Jewish community; they were also well-protected by local Venezuelan security forces.
The Venezuelan government’s reception of Israeli assistance contrasts with the complete cut-off in relations between the countries, which date back to 2009.
During a visit to the Jewish community for a Friday night Shabbat prayer service and dinner, he said that the Jewish Venezuelan attendees had tears in their eyes from seeing the IDF uniforms up close.
A major accomplishment of the Israeli delegation was to develop and propose a multi-year plan for mapping and rebuilding the disaster areas. Venezuela approved of these in only a matter of days, which would normally take weeks or months to come up with.
Edri said that the severity of the disaster warranted rapid and out-of-the-box thinking.
Following the June 24 earthquake, the IDF delegation flew out of Israel on June 30, landing in Venezuela on July 1 after multiple complex stopovers, Edri said.
He explained that, given the current chaos, other delegations who wanted to assist with the disaster have needed four to five days of travel and waiting to arrive at disaster-stricken sites.
Even the IDF could not fly directly into Caracas; they flew into Valencia instead and then traveled to Caracas domestically.
Edri had anticipated that the IDF delegation would return to Israel on July 12, but an IDF spokesperson noted that the date could be adjusted according to instructions from the Israeli political and diplomatic echelon.
Finally, after a week of non-stop activity in Venezuela, the Israeli rescue delegation concluded its mission on Monday and is returning to Israel.
At the airport, the delegation was received with applause and thanks for its aid.
Other Israeli rescue teams and ambassador deployed
The IDF was not the only Israeli humanitarian effort on the ground in the wake of the disaster.
Comprising personnel from Magen, Ready for Rescue, and SmartAID, Israel’s delegation was deployed to Venezuela after the two earthquakes devastated the country. Since arriving, it has worked alongside local forces on the ground to locate and rescue survivors and provide humanitarian aid whenever possible.
During its operations, Israel’s delegation worked around the clock at several sites of high-rise collapses, carrying out complex search-and-rescue operations and recovering many bodies from the rubble.
It also opened key access routes to enable ongoing search-and-rescue operations for missing persons, laying the groundwork for continued activity by local and international forces.
As the emergency search-and-rescue delegation returned home on Wednesday, a preliminary group from Israel’s humanitarian-assistance delegation arrived in Venezuela to support the South American country’s recovery efforts. It was led by Israeli Ambassador-designate to Mexico Yoed Magen, who, along with Edri, met with local authorities and first-responder officials shortly after his arrival.
According to the statement, the rest of the delegation is set to join the preliminary team in the coming days.
The delegation is on the ground, currently assisting local teams in their post-earthquake rescue efforts.
The Israeli team is presently sharing its knowledge in the fields of earthquake and emergency response with locals, drawing on experience gained from multiple international humanitarian assistance missions.
Heavy tolls, 41,000 missing
On Sunday, the Venezuelan Information Ministry announced that the death toll had risen to 3,342.
The new tally also puts the number of injured at 16,470, while the number of homeless has risen to 17,345. Nearly 200 buildings are confirmed to have collapsed, according to state officials.
Some of the homeless are living in official shelters and others in tent encampments. An unofficial but widely used tally of the missing stands at around 41,000.
Earlier in the day, in a speech commemorating Venezuela’s 215th independence day, Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez defended the government’s actions following the quakes amid growing frustration over what many have called a delayed and inadequate response to the disaster.
Rodriguez said she deployed security forces immediately and announced the creation of a new military unit to help deal with emergencies and disasters.