YNet News
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called Israel’s ambassador in Nepal, Yaron Meir, in the wake of a magnitude 7.3 earthquake which struck Nepal on Tuesday, originally confirmed by the U.S. Geological Survey.
Forty-two deaths have been confirmed by an international agency along with 981 wounded and the tremors caused people to run out of buildings in the capital Kathmandu and shook structures in the Indian capital.
Netanyahu is reportedly receiving updates on the situation in the region. Israel’s aid team which helped save lives after an earthquake in April that devastated Nepal, landed back in Israel Tuesday morning just hours before the new earthquake.
Despite the disasters that occurred only a few weeks ago, there were still Israeli travelers in Nepal. Shai Giron of Ness Ziona has been in the country for a month and a half. Speaking to Ynet on the phone, he described the fresh disaster.
“I was with some friends in a restaurant in Thamel, in Kathmandu, and suddenly the whole earth shook and things fell on the floor,” he said. “We went outside and ran towards the Chabad House. I was on a trek during the last earthquake and now there were many people around me. The locals immediately closed the stores and ran home, and they’re hysterical.”
In a video uploaded to their Facebook page, Chabad of Nepal Shluchim Rabbi Chezki Lifshitz and his wife Chani said they had already made contact with “about 100” Israelis in the area, and were trying to get in contact with 20 – 30 other Israeli citizens scattered throughout the country.
רעידת אדמה נוספת בנפאל • עדכון משלוחי חב”דרוצים לסייע? לחצו על הקישור ושתפו את החברים!bit.ly/1PfZmuc
Posted by חב”ד on Tuesday, May 12, 2015
The quake this morning was much more strongly felt, Lifshitz tells Walla news, adding that surrogate families were in real danger. Lifshitz says that buildings that were merely damaged in the first quake two weeks ago collapsed to the ground.
The quake, which struck near the base camp of Mount Everest, was measured at a shallow depth of about 10 km. A 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck on April 25, killing at least 8,046 people and injuring more than 17,800.
Beautiful people! Moshiach now