Israel’s rescue team cuts short Turkey mission due to security threat

A “concrete and immediate” security threat has caused one Israeli team sent to Turkey to provide aid to earthquake victims to cut short its mission Sunday, as the disaster’s death toll rocketed to 29,000. The team of 40, mostly medical professionals, working in the hard hit southern Turkish town of Marash near the Syrian border, had planned to stay 10 days. Some other international rescue teams also decided to pull out in view of growing unrest among Turkish citizens over the government’s poor response to the earthquake. Jewish billionaire philanthropist Miriam Adelson has provided her private jet to lift the group home.

Israel has deployed around 450 rescue specialists, doctors and nurses to Turkish towns and cities and treated 180 patients including Syrian refugees..