The Israel Defense Forces Search and Rescue Unit is a world leader in detecting and saving the lives of people trapped by wreckage. In August the unit flew to Kenya following a deadly car bomb attack on the US Embassy.
by Simon Griver
"For me there is no greater satisfaction in this world than pulling out a person alive from beneath the rubble," explains Lieutenant Colonel Nahum Frenkel, commander of the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) Search and Rescue Unit. Amid the carnage and horror caused by the terrorists who blew up the US Embassy in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, which claimed the lives of nearly 200 people and injured several thousand others, Lt. Col. Frenkel was able to feel some satisfaction. The IDF unit saved three people.
The IDF unit, of the Home Front Command, was dispatched to Africa following a request by the governments of Kenya and the US. It reached Nairobi about 18 hours after the blast had occurred and began operating later the same day. The mission comprised 170 members, including search and rescue professionals as well as dog handlers and medical personnel.
"At first the Kenyans were very suspicious of the Israelis," reported Israel TVs correspondent Alon Ben David. "The local people were just staring at the ruins in horror not knowing what to do. But the professionalism with which the IDF team went about their work gave them confidence. Morale rose and people began to believe that something could be done. When the Israelis pulled out a survivor they became heroes."
The hero, from the Israeli point of view was 29-year-old Lieutenant Gil Viener, who worked for six hours under the debris to rescue Kenyan survivor Sammy Nganga. Lieutenant Viener, an student of architecture at the Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem, who is a swimming pool lifeguard in his spare time, risked his own life: the chasm in which he was working could have collapsed at any moment. It did indeed collapse several hours later and could certainly have killed both Lieutenant Viener and Mr. Nganga.
Mr. Nganga, whose leg had been crushed and trapped under debris, refused to be lifted out when he was first discovered. "I thought I was dead and already in hell," Mr. Nganga told the Israeli daily newspaper Maariv. "I didnt understand what the Israeli soldier wanted of me." "I am a deeply devout Christian," he said, "so it does not surprise me that my saviors came from Jerusalem."
The IDF Search and Rescue Unit was established in 1984, integrating previously existing rescue units. Prior to its Kenyan endeavor, it took part in three major rescue operations abroad the earthquake in Mexico in 1985, the earthquake in Armenia in 1988 and the bombing of the Jewish community center in Argentina in 1994.
The unit employs some of the worlds most sophisticated equipment, including an Israeli-made device for detecting victims trapped under rubble. The innovative device analyzes vibrations caused by the smallest movements of victims buried under the rubble. At the same time, old-fashioned sniffer dogs are also used to identify the presence of trapped victims.
The unit is comprised of highly trained professionals who include both regular and reserve soldiers. When deployed in the field the unit operates according to a plan based on the assessment of engineers, physicians, evacuation specialists and operators of heavy equipment, all members of the squad.
In Israel the unit is "on call" 24 hours a day to perform special rescue missions. It responds to emergency calls on an average of once every two weeks although their expertise is not usually needed. In Kenya, the Israelis worked tirelessly around the clock in twelve hour shifts, pulling out corpse after corpse, but always hoping to detect signs of life.
Another Israeli hero in Kenya was Lieutenant Golan, from Haifa. More than 48 hours after the bomb blast, during a routine search of surrounding high-rise buildings, he found a mother and her 13-year-old son traumatized and huddled together on the 21st floor of a building near the US Embassy.
The Israeli rescuers came agonizingly close to saving a fourth life. A Kenyan woman called Rose had been alive for three days after the blast, but by the time the unit was able to reach her, on the fourth day, it was too late.
Lt. Col. Frenkel remains determined to go on to future rescues. The gray-bearded 57-year-old, who in civilian life owns two garages specializing in heavy vehicles, recently signed on for another two years in the unit. Well past the age at which he could retire, Lt. Col. Frenkel is dedicated to saving lives. "Ive seen far worse destruction than we saw in Kenya," he said. "The earthquakes in Mexico and Armenia were devastating. But its a much greater tragedy when you realize that this was a man-made disaster perpetrated by terrorists and murderers against innocent civilians."