In video: Earthquake damage in Turkey, Kermanmarsh, February 8, 2023 (Yoav Itiel)
The health committee in the Knesset discussed this morning (Monday) the assessments of the health system for an earthquake situation.
According to a senior official at the ministry, the number of people injured in the noise in the North Kinneret area is expected to range from a few thousand to 25,000.
In a discussion held at the Interior and Environmental Protection Committee, Amir Yahav, director of the inter-ministerial steering committee, claimed that according to mapping carried out this week, it was discovered that Jerusalem is also at risk, along with areas in Haifa, Kiryat, and the south of the country.
The Chairman of the Health Committee, MK Uriel Bosso, at the beginning of the debate, referred to the strong noise in Turkey and Syria, in which tens of thousands of civilians were killed. In Israel it is almost certain.
Hospitals and health institutions are essential infrastructure and should continue to function even after an earthquake, both to continue providing care to the existing hospitalized patients and to receive those injured from the event itself."
"The State Comptroller's report from 2018 showed, unfortunately, that despite the government's decisions and budgeting, no real change has yet been made in the preparations," Bosso said.
We will ask to appoint a committee member on our behalf who will assist and report to the health committee regularly on the progress.
We will do what is necessary in front of every party in the government to promote it.
The public and the medical authorities have their eyes on us and these things drive sleep away from our eyes as elected officials."
The discussion in the health committee, today (photo: Knesset spokeswoman, Knesset spokeswoman - Dani Shem Tov)
Health system assessments
The Director of the Emergency Department at the Ministry of Health, Rafael Golani, presented the state of preparedness for an earthquake: "There are several scenarios for strong earthquakes by region, and the expected number of injured in each of them ranges from a few thousand to 25,000 injured in an earthquake in the North Kinneret region. The hospitals in Israel are Fully occupied even on a daily basis."
"Hospitals such as Ziv, Furia, the English and French hospitals in Nazareth, Yoseftel and more may be significantly damaged in a way that will prevent them from taking in casualties completely, and this is beyond the damage to patients already in the hospital," Golani said.
"In such a scenario, the State of Israel will also have to receive aid missions from abroad in the field of medicine.
We will also need to know how to receive aid, how to manage it and direct it to where it is needed."
According to him, the health funds have over 2,200 clinics in the community and even there there are very large gaps in terms of assessments, and in some cases they still don't know what they are.
Four months ago, a committee was established headed by Prof. Ofer Marin, which includes representatives of the Ministry of Health from various divisions, the Israel Police, Fire and Rescue, MDA, Rachel, and more.
Golani claimed that as soon as they receive the budgets, they will advance the assessments according to the mapping and the priorities they will determine.
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The discussion in the health committee, today (photo: Knesset spokeswoman, Knesset spokeswoman - Dani Shem Tov)
Senior Vice President and Head of Planning at the Ministry of Health, Uri Goldstein, added that there are many deficiencies in equipment, which can be completed immediately and at a relatively low cost, such as generators, medical gas accumulators, mobile supply lines, etc. According to him, the most expensive task is strengthening the buildings, which is expected to cost hundreds of millions. "Many of the health institutions in the country were built before 1981 and do not meet the current standards for earthquake resistance."
Goldstein said in the committee that there are plans for reinforcements and construction, but it is not possible to carry them out from a budgetary point of view. "If we can promote and accelerate the receipt of the budgets, we can To complete what we started in Ziv and Rambam, otherwise it could take years and sometimes if you started strengthening and you don't complete it - you make the situation worse."
The discussion in the health committee, today (photo: Knesset spokeswoman, Knesset spokeswoman - Dani Shem Tov)
MK Ahmed Tibi said in the committee: "Hospitals are not only in Tel Hashomer and Linson, there are also in Nazareth, there are large community clinics that need to be strengthened and this is not being done."
In the auditor's report, the ten cities at very high risk in the event of an earthquake were specified, and not a single Arab settlement is mentioned there, although next to each such city or settlement there are also Arab settlements. The audit must not be blind to the Arab society. earthquake, more than 100 seismic stations were set up, not even one here in the Arab settlements."
In response to Tibi's claim, the deputy head of the MLA, Itzik Bar, replied that the 120 seismic stations are located on a map of a regional analysis of the Syrian-African fault, where the earthquakes are supposed to be felt and not by locality. According to him, this provides an equal and uniform response to all in terms of alerts. Bar: "Many budgets already exist today for preparation, but the funds usually do not arrive on time and are not specifically defined for this purpose, so when there are budgetary challenges, this is the first thing that is touched upon.
If the budget is not hedged and there is no monitoring and reporting every year, the State of Israel will not progress and we will find ourselves in a difficult situation.
For every shekel we invest today, we will save ten shekels at the event itself."
"Fear of thousands of wounded in Israel".
Destruction and collapsed buildings in Turkey (Photo: Reuters)
The representative of the Ministry of Finance Tamar Chin spoke about the issue of budgets.
She claimed that the construction budget is hundreds of millions of shekels per year and every new construction is protected.
"It is important to all of us that the money goes out and reaches its destination, because if they have decided that the need exists - it is important that it is implemented. We are actively working to ensure that every budgeted project is actually implemented. There is great complexity in carrying out projects such as strengthening hospital buildings. We are trying to remove barriers and create green routes. We are currently in discussions For the formulation of an annual state budget, the Ministry of Health will prioritize its needs and we will budget."
A MDA representative warned at the Health Committee discussion about gaps in blood donations and portions in the event of a powerful earthquake. "It is not certain that we will be able to meet the supply.
There is work on locating countries in Europe that would be able to help with blood donations in such a case."
The discussion in the Interior and Environmental Protection Committee, today (photo: Knesset spokeswoman, Knesset spokeswoman - Liron Weiss)
A representative of Zaka elaborated on the problems that may appear in the organization: "In Turkey today there are thousands of corpses lying in hospitals in a state of decay and there is no one to answer it.
Apparently it's going to a mass burial.
This is a severe sanitary disaster and we need to prepare for such a scenario - who is responsible for identifying the dead, who takes care of burial matters." The
deputy head of the MAL responded to the ZAKA's concern that "the State of Israel will do everything to avoid going to a mass burial and this requires immediate identification capabilities.
Israel today has a database of about 4 million fingerprints.
The identification is the responsibility of the Israel Police and this operation requires the interface of the IDF's systems with the civilian systems, but new legislation is going to delete this database and without it, it will be very difficult to identify. This is one of the main things that lie before us."
The debate in the Interior and Environmental Protection Committee
"If we have an earthquake like the one that happened in Turkey, we will see similar scenes," said Amir Yahav, director of the Inter-ministerial Steering Committee for Earthquake Preparedness, at a special meeting of the Interior Committee.
Yahav added that "the State of Israel is preparing to deal with earthquakes and we are in a good place compared to countries in the world, but the progress is very slow."
"I hope that the state will wake up and invest more in this issue. In 2015, work was done by the steering committee and settlements were found whose criteria are objective and in the end 10 settlements that are at risk in an earthquake situation were distilled. We did additional work last week and we are talking about many more than 10 settlements that are at risk, among them Haifa And the Kiryat and also other areas in the south and Jerusalem, beyond what we knew."
In response to the question of the chairman of the committee, MK Yaakov Asher, when did the ministerial committee on earthquakes last meet.
Yahav answered that the committee met for the last time in 2016.
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