JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s Cabinet agreed to send a group of police officers to Haiti to maintain public order.
The 14 officers will assist the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, which is working to uphold order and stabilize the area following January’s earthquake. The quake killed more than 100,000, left hundreds of thousands injured and damaged the homes of some 3 million people.
The group, which works on a voluntary basis, will operate as part of a combined force of Israel, Italy and Serbia.
In recent months Israel’s Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Public Security and the Israel Police have been in contact with the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the Italian government and police force to advance the mission.
Immediately following the earthquake, Israel sent a field hospital and an evacuation and rescue team to the island.
"This is a Jewish and humanistic action, and it follows up on the rapidly organized activity that preceded it after the Haitian earthquake," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday following the Cabinet’s decision.
