Aid to Maui
Israeli humanitarian aid NGO SmartAID has sent a team of specialists to Maui after the devastating wildfires on the Hawaiian island. They will conduct search and rescue operations and install telecommunication systems to help coordinate first responders, plus solar energy systems and more.
Preserving sharks in the Mediterranean
University of Haifa researchers have been awarded a $100,000 National Geographic Wayfinder Grant to track the movement of sharks along the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Israel is the only country that protects all elasmobranch species (sharks and rays) within its maritime borders.
Gold Universal Design winners
The D.DLAB (Disrupt.Design) team from Israel’s Technion Institute won the Design Educate Awards Gold Prize for 2023. Asst. Prof. Shany Barath also won the Emerging Designer award. Their WoodenWood project converts wood waste into a composite for printing wood products.
Visit by US states’ police delegation
20 police and public safety executives from Georgia and Tennessee spent two weeks training in Israel. They learned about new policing and public safety technologies, and about making neighborhoods, including minority ones, safer through community policing.
Puppies saved
The Jerusalem District of the Israel Fire and Rescue Authority extinguished a forest fire near the Mount of Olives that threatened the local hospital and nearby homes. During the battle, firefighter Sgt. Majd Huseen rescued nine puppies who were sheltering in a tree trunk.
Parking lot transformed into urban ecological piazza
A few years ago, Givon Square in Tel Aviv was an ugly parking lot. The municipality moved the car park underground and transformed its new roof into an urban oasis complete with trees, shade, cafes, restaurants, a vintage market, and an ecological pond.
A hi-tech park for Jerusalem Arabs
Israel has inaugurated The EasTech high-tech campus on Saleh al-Din Street in eastern Jerusalem (see previously). It is part of the Israeli government’s effort to create jobs for Arab hi-tech professionals. Twenty local programmers are already working there.
Firefighting planes for Greece and Cyprus
Israel sent two 'Elad' firefighting aircraft from its aerial firefighting squadron to help Greece and Cyprus extinguish their raging forest fires. They included four pilots, forest fire experts, and essential equipment. Logistic support was provided by an IAF transport plane.
Water from air for Ukraine following dam collapse
Israel’s Watergen provided five water generators to the Ukrainian city of Kherson after a dam in nearby Nova Kakhovka collapsed, leaving some 700,000 without clean drinking water. Each generator can provide 900 liters of drinkable water per day.
Israeli doctors mend Jordanian girl
A 7-year-old girl from Amman, Jordan, born with a congenital deformed dislocated hip, was in constant pain following multiple unsuccessful surgeries in Jordan. Pediatric orthopedic surgeons at Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center lengthened her femur (thigh bone) and she can now walk.