(JTA) – Israel sent aid to help rescue efforts in flood-ravaged Serbia and Bosnia.
Local media reported that Israel sent a first shipment of emergency aid this weekend including medicine, food, blankets and rain gear, and will soon send pumps. The aid was delivered by helicopter because submerged cities were cut off by the record floods, which have left more than two dozen dead and thousands homeless.
The town of Doboj in Bosnia’s Republic of Serbia region, which has a small Jewish community, was especially hard hit, with the city center totally under water and at least 20 dead, the mayor told local media. Doboj’s Jewish community building, which has a synagogue on an upper floor, is located in the town center.
Jasna Ciric, the president of the Jewish community in Nis, Serbia, said she understood that all members of the Doboj Jewish community were safe but some were trapped in their homes without electricity, water or telephones.
Aleksander Nikolic, the assistant chief representative of the Republic of Serbia in Israel, said the Israeli aid was a “very human gesture” and “proof of friendship in a most difficult moment,” according to local media.
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