Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during the weekly cabinet meeting, offered his Italian counterpart Matteo Renzi assistance following the devastating earthquake which hit Italy over the weekend.
“I would like to tell my friend, Italian PM Matteo Renzi, that Israel is ready and willing to send aid to the best of our ability. We maintain a high state of readiness for disasters such as occurred in the structure in Tel Aviv and this also serves us in cases of earthquakes. We do not know what the effects of these earthquakes will be, but Israel is prepared and we are ready to help our Italian friends,” said the Jewish leader.
The offer by Prime Minister Netanyahu came when strong aftershocks continued to rip through central Italy following a 6.6 magnitude earthquake, which hit the country during the early hours of Sunday morning.
“There are continuing aftershocks and there are other building collapses. Here in Norcia the Basilica of St. Benedict (has been damaged) and a little while ago in another tremor the Church of St. Francis was damaged. The aftershocks are continuing and inside the historical center of Norcia we only have those strictly needed to keep searching, so we can rule out any presence of missing people, even if we don’t have any indication that there are any. There shouldn’t be any because the historic center had already been evacuated. We are simply making sure that is the case,” said Luca Cari, Italian Fire-brigade Spokesman. Despite the extensive damage across central Italy, there have been no reports of any casualties.
Italian president Sergio Mattarella, who is on his first official visit to Israel, continued his itinerary despite the devastating earthquake that hit his country. The Italian leader visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, during which he declared that “the wound of the Holocaust remains open for all of us who respect life and cherish human values.” President Mattarella also visited the grave of late Israeli President Shimon Peres, where he laid a wreath representing the Italian people. The Italian President, who is viewed by Israeli leaders as a close friend of the Jewish state, called earlier this month a UNESCO resolution that failed to acknowledge the biblical connections with holy sites in Jerusalem as “incomprehensible, unacceptable and wrong.” The comments by the Italian leader aligned with Rome’s ambassador to UNESCO, as the latter abstained during the resolution’s vote on the 13th of October, along with the envoys of western European countries. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attributing the change in Israel’s international standing to the economic and technological strengthening of the Jewish state, among other areas.
“Israel’s international relations are developing in Asia, Africa, Latin America and in many other places. We are aware that this development stems from the economic and technological strengthening of Israel on the one hand and our security and intelligence capabilities on the other. Both of these facilitate the development and flourishment of our international relations. This is not to say that we will not be challenged in international forums, like we saw in the scandalous UNESCO decisions, and it is likely that this will continue at the UN, but there is no doubt that even in international institutions, even in these scandalous votes, we have seen a change,” said Israel’s PM.