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Vikki Amar returns to Israel alive (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners January 1, 2005 |
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As the death toll in the tsunami disaster rose above 150,000, Israeli families had mixed news as the dead were identified and the missing made contact.
The Israelis confirmed dead are Sharon Halieli, 22, of Gan Yavneh; Hemda Cohen, 53, of Rishon Letzion, Zohar Aloni, 24, an El Al flight attendant from Tel Aviv, and Esther Levy, 58, of Ra'anana, whose injured husband returned last week. All were killed in Thailand.
The bodies will be flown from Thailand Saturday night and are expected to land in Israel Sunday morning.
There is grave concern for three Israelis last seen on Khao Lak, the worst-hit beach in Thailand.
Two other Israelis are listed as missing in Sri Lanka.
The Israeli rescue teams in Thailand split up Thursday, with one team working on identifying bodies in Krabi, while another worked on the same task in Phuket.
"The Thais are working very methodically," said one Israeli team member, Haaretz reported. "Every body, every identifying sign - tattoo or piercing -- is photographed and documented. Before unidentified bodies are buried, DNA samples are taken and numbered. This means that the minute we discover that any of these are Israeli bodies, we will be able to check the DNA against that of their families, confirm their identity and quickly locate the burial site."
The Israeli crews -- from the police and Zaka (a nonprofit group specializing in forensic identification) - are trying to locate dead Israelis before burial.
The Institute of Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir on Thursday collected DNA samples from the families of eight missing Israelis, as well as teeth and bone X-rays supplied by families of missing relatives for comparison with samples and X-rays collected by rescue personnel.
In Jerusalem, 11-month-old Matan Nesima, was buried on the Mount of Olives by his parents, Belgian Jews Thursday. He was killed in Thailand when the tsunami swept him out of his hotel room where he and his parents were staying.
For some families in Israel, however, last Thursday was a happy day: Twenty-one Israelis previously listed as missing contacted relatives. An IDF cargo plane which took food and medicine to Sri :Lanka returned to Israel on Thursday with 43 Israelis who survived the tsunami.
The Foreign Ministry has not made contact with an additional 90 Israelis who had been traveling in Southeast Asia, but there is less concern for their fates as they were believed to be traveling in areas not affected by the tsunami.
Some 40 Israeli tsunami survivors decided Thursday to continue their vacation in the Andaman Islands instead of returning to Israel.
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