JERUSALEM — Israeli planes carrying humanitarian aid, medical staff and equipment for a field hospital arrived in Macedonia and Albania on Tuesday to provide support for refugees streaming out of Kosovo.
Health Minister Yehoshua Matza headed the mission.
On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel would take in 100 Kosovar refugees, saying the Jewish state felt driven by memories of the Holocaust.
The relief efforts followed a first Israeli mission sent to the region last Friday that brought a planeload of medicines, blankets, clothes and tents. Science Minister Silvan Shalom headed that mission.
Meanwhile, the Jewish Agency for Israel has organized its own aid mission — its first-ever relief mission to a region without a significant Jewish population.
The first of three planes carrying aid to Albania for the refugees from Kosovo, sponsored by the Jewish Agency and Keren Hayesod, also left Tuesday for Tirana.
Salai Meridor, the Jewish Agency’s acting chairman, was among the officials on board. Joining him were Avi Pazner, world chairman of Keren Hayesod, and Dashnor Dervishi, Albania’s ambassador to Israel.
The aid consisted of 2,000 blankets, 30 family tents, bundles of warm clothing, sleeping bags, two tons of non-perishable milk, and one ton of baby formula.
The next two agency flights, which were set to depart yesterday and today, will be filled with more of the same, as well as with 17 tons of food.
Both businesses and private citizens responded to the agency’s request for help, donating goods and money.
“We are astounded by the overwhelming response of the Israeli public although it is now Pesach and many people are not home,” said Jewish Agency spokesman Michael Jankelowitz earlier this week. So far, Israelis have contributed more than $250,000.
In an attempt to raise more money for the relief effort, the agency, in conjunction with Army Radio, planned a telethon for yesterday.
A large pop concert in support of the Kosovo refugees was also set for last night in Tel Aviv’s Kikar Rabin, the spokesman said. A Bank Leumi mobile bank was to make the rounds at the concert to raise funds.
The Secondary School Teachers Association also began collecting donations from among the 36,000 teachers who belong to the group.
Ran Erez, the teachers association chair, said that “as a people which has experienced tragedies in which the world sat idly by, we cannot but offer a hand in assistance, support, help, and encouragement to the tens of thousands and perhaps hundreds of thousands of helpless refugees. The directors of the association and its members cannot be apathetic to the tragedy the Kosovo refugees are going through, which is why we have decided to help.”
The Council of Youth Movements in Israel also has announced that members of its youth groups will go door-to-door, handing out leaflets to families asking them to donate.
The youth movements are also considering sending youth leaders who have finished their army service to refugee camps in Macedonia or Albania, to work with young people there. They will also work on establishing contacts with Jewish refugees.
The Israeli government’s campaign is being run with the cooperation of the Spirit of Israel, an Israeli charity organization established by the Jewish Agency and Keren Hayesod.
In sending off the first mission last Friday morning, Israeli Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon said that such aid is “a moral responsibility of the state of Israel and the Jewish people. This is how we acted in the past and this is how we are responding now.”
Last Friday’s planeload of emergency supplies carried 12 tons of medical supplies, warm clothing and tents. It landed in Skopje, Macedonia, and later in Tirana, Albania, before returning to Israel on last Friday night.