SURFSIDE, FLA. (WSVN) - As people wait for the violence in the Middle East to stop, South Florida is doing what it can to support the victims in the war between Israel and Hamas.
A man who has helped in the recovery efforts in a couple of America’s worst disasters is once again taking the call.
“I can’t say that I’m used to disasters, because no one is used to disasters, but I went through a lot,” Yossi Landau said.
A lot, but Landau said it is nothing like what he’s witnessing now in Israel. Landau works as a volunteer who recovers and identifies the dead.
He leads a team of volunteers with ZAKA, the Israeli search-and-rescue organization, who have been called in the wake of mass casualty accidents, natural disasters and acts of terror.
Landau’s team also helps to prepare the dead for burial in accordance with Jewish law.
“It’s 9/11 attack, or it was in Surfside in Miami, I was there,” he said.
ZAKA was deployed to the Surfside condo collapse in June of 2021. A picture shows Landau during a moment of rest near the collapse site.
Twenty years earlier, in New York, he was assisting at site of the World Trade Center.
Now, ZAKA is at work is at home as Landau’s team recovers the remains of more than 700 people so far.
He said the bodies of the dead tell horrific stories.
“I saw it, and I was there,” Landau said.
This, he said, has been his hardest mission yet: recovering those who died at the hands of terrorists.
“Something like this, this is – I can’t call them animals, I can’t, it’s a shame for the animals, but they came in and killing, just for killing,” he said.
For more information on ZAKA Search and Rescue’s efforts in Israel and how to make a donation, click here.
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