Mexican president thanks Israel for quick help in the wake of earthquake
The devastating 7.1 magnitude earthquake killed more than 300 people.
By HERB KEINONA MEMBER OF the Israeli rescue team searches for survivors in a collapsed building after an earthquake in Mexico City on September 21.(photo credit: REUTERS)
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto thanked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a telephone call on Tuesday for the Israeli search and rescue team sent to Mexico City last month following a devastating earthquake there.According to a statement put out by the Prime Minister’s Office, Nieto expressed appreciation for the way in which Israel quickly mobilized and sent the team to help deal with the aftereffects of the 7.1 magnitude earthquake that killed more than 300 people.The earthquake hit on September 19 and the Israeli team was the first foreign group to give assistance, arriving on the scene just two days later.The team was made up of some 71 soldiers from the army’s Home Front Command.It focused on trying to extricate trapped survivors and on surveying public buildings to determine whether they needed to be demolished after the earthquake or were still structurally sound.A building collapses in Mexico in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake on September 19, 2017.. The Israelis were sent to Mexico just days after Netanyahu met Nieto in Mexico City during his historic trip to Latin America.When Netanyahu greeted the team upon its return on September 28, he told the soldiers they were “the long arm of Israel, the long humanitarian arm that reaches around the world, across thousands of kilometers, and you show the true face of the State of Israel.”Netanyahu said that while not a major world power, “we are a rising global power including in the ability to extend assistance to various countries.”
