Israeli rescue team heads to Thailand after powerful quake

An Israeli delegation left for Thailand on Saturday night to help with search and rescue efforts after the earthquake that shook the country and neighbouring Myanmar the previous day.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed Israeli National Security Council head Tzachi Hanegbi to support attempts to reach 81 workers trapped under a high-rise building that collapsed in Bangkok.

The 21-member team, led by Colonel Yossi Pinto, the commander of the IDF’s reserve national Search and Rescue Unit, departed from Ben-Gurion International Airport on an El Al flight.

Israeli officials were quoted by Israel Hayom as saying, “The delegation will assist in constructing an intelligence picture for population-based and engineering-based rescue operations and will continue working until the last trapped individual is rescued.”

People drive on a motorbike past a collapsed building in Mandalay, March 28, 2025 (Credit: STR/AFP via Getty Images) [Missing Credit]

The death toll from the 7.7 magnitude earthquake that struck on Friday morning, whose epicentre was located close to Mandalay in Myanmar, has exceeded 1,600, according to authorities.

It was the most powerful quake in Myanmar in more than a century, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). In Thailand, dozens have been reportedly killed.

The Israeli rescue mission is understoo to have arrived at the site of a 33-floor building that was under construction. Several construction workers were confirmed dead, while scores of others remain trapped underneath the rubble.