Early in the morning on August 7, 1998, two virtually simultaneous terrorist attacks struck the U.S. embassies in
Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. Killing 257
(including 12 Americans) and wounding over 5,000, the attacks were
the work of a sophisticated terrorist operation.
Almost immediately, Israel offered the U.S. its
expertise in disaster rescue and cleanup and within six hours of the bombings, an Israeli rescue mission was
authorized.
Early on August 8, Israel dispatched to Kenya approximately 170 members of the IDF’s Home Front Command Rescue
Unit accompanied by a group of civilian and
military doctors, eight search and rescue dogs, Signals and Electronics corpsmen and truckloads of high-tech rescue equipment including drills, saws,
compressors, communications devices and a special inflatable rubber
mat. The IDF teams began operating in the disaster site just 23 hours after it received its first order and was the first delegation to arrive on the scene from abroad.
According to the New York Times, Israel’s presence was felt
immediately: “Before the arrival of the Israeli experts at 4 P.M.,
the rescue efforts had been going slowly and did not seem
well-organized. By late afternoon, the ad-hoc team of volunteers,
private contractors, engineers, Red Cross workers, and Kenyan soldiers
were still trying to find a way to lift several large slabs of
concrete without causing a general collapse that would doom the few
people still left alive behind....But within an hour, the Israeli
team had taken command...using three cranes to lift huge slabs of
flooring off from above and clearing rubble with human chains.” CNN
echoed these sentiments August 8, describing the initial rescue effort
as an “energetic [but] ill-equipped” mission that was “changed and
galvanized by the arrival of an Israeli squad of well-trained, very
well-equipped, and highly experienced engineers who have done a lot of
this.”
Less than seven hours after arriving at the scene, IDF rescuer Gil
Weiner extricated a survivor from the rubble - a 45-year-old
businessman named Gatili Nganga. On August 9, the Israeli-led team
found 40-year-old Grace Odingo and her 10-year-old son Gabriel, shaken
but largely unhurt, on the 21st floor of a building severely damaged
by the blast.
On August 12, after three
heart-wrenching, precarious days of drilling, digging,
debris-clearing and sawing, the Israeli team announced that the
mission was completed. Tragically, the team members’ heroic and
feverish efforts to save victim Rose Wanjika, a woman who was
detected alive beneath the rubble and was initially able to
communicate with rescuers, fell short - she ultimately could not hang
on long enough to be saved.
Nonetheless, the Israeli team was able to recover 95 bodies and save three
people trapped alive in the ruins.
On August 12, the Kenyan army raised four flagpoles at the blast
site to honor the four parties that comprised the international rescue coalition - Kenya, United States, France and Israel. In turn, the team members held a
memorial service, laying wreaths and flowers and lowering their
national flags in honor of the bombing’s many victims. That same day,
in the same spirit as that of the time-honored Israeli burial
tradition, three trees were planted - one for the Kenyans, one
for the Americans and one for peace, in the corner of a national
“freedom park.”
Praise for the Israeli relief efforts was widespread from the people on the
ground to players on the world stage. Gatili Nganga, recovering after
surgery that successfully reattached a severed limb, credited the IDF
team with his safe recovery, saying: “If it wasn’t for the Israeli
soldiers, I’m sure that today I would be dead.” A Kenyan Red Cross
worker told the Israelis: “You came like angels from the sky.” An
unidentified onlooker interviewed by CNN said “the Israelis were very
perfect.” Upon the unit’s imminent departure, Kenya’s President,
Daniel Arap-Moi, took time to meet with the team members to convey
his personal thanks, as well as his country’s deeply-held feelings of
appreciation.
President Clinton said Israel’s immediate and sincere
response to the crisis was both “ impressive and heartwarming.” State
Department Spokesman James Foley reported that “Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright initiated [a] call to Prime Minister
Netanyahu...over the weekend...to thank the government and the people
of Israel for their extraordinary assistance in the
search-and-rescue effort in Nairobi.” According to Foley, the
secretary noted the Israelis’ “phenomenal role in leading the
search-and-rescue efforts,” maintaining that “the experience and
expertise of the Israeli teams literally made the difference between
life and death for at least one victim of the blast.”
Sources: Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Near East Report, (August 24, 1998)