too proud to accept top class help?

No offers from the wealthy Muslim countries.......

Yep, great contributors to mankind......!!!

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Sri Lanka refusing IDF medical relief and rescue team

By Yoav Stern and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service and Agencies

An Israeli aid delegation was set to depart for Sri Lanka on Tuesday, including some 150 members of the Israel Defense Forces and the Defense Ministry who would provide humanitarian assistance and participate in search and rescue operations. However, IDF sources said Sri Lanka was apparently refusing to accept the Israeli aid delegation and was asking only for supplies.

It was earlier reported that the departure of the IDF mission was delayed by several hours on Tuesday morning due to a lack of coordination between Sri Lanka's Foreign Ministry and the Sri Lankan military, who were to both authorize the Israeli team's landing.

The mission, headed by OC Home Front Command Brigadier General Avraham Ben-David, was to bring medical equipment, water, food, tents, blankets, mattresses and generators in three aircraft.

The team would assemble a medical facility comprising of specialist doctors, an emergency department, an internal medicine department, a pediatric department as well as laboratory and X-ray facilities in the southern part of Sri Lanka.

The decision to send the delegation to Sri Lanka came despite the lack of diplomatic ties between the two countries. Sri Lanka, one of the hardest hit countries, said on Tuesday the death toll from the tsunami rose to 12,212 people. This figure includes 200 foreign tourists. Sri Lankan military spokesman Daya Ratnayake said over 1.5 million people had been displaced from their homes - around 7.5 percent of Sri Lanka's population.

Israel is weighing the option of sending similar delegations to Thailand and India, but has yet to make a final decision on the matter.

A Health Ministry contingent left for Thailand on Monday night to aid in the rescue efforts there after around 1,000 people, including tourists, were killed on the once-idyllic islands of Phuket and Phi Phi. The contingent includes doctors, nurses and four members of the IDF, Israel Radio reported.

Another team landed in Sri Lanka on Monday night. Four doctors - all from Hadassah University Hospital, Ein Karem in Jerusalem - head the Israeli mission. The team is carrying medicine and baby food.

The doctors, who specialize in rescue operations, trauma and pediatrics, will also be checking the viability of establishing a field hospital in the area. That decision will come at a later time from the Ministry of Defense.

"It is possible... we will advise Israel and the Foreign Ministry... to send something more massive," said Dr. Avi Rivkind, director of Hadassah's trauma unit. "We will try to use our... broad experience in dealing with terror attacks and rescuing masses to help in this disaster as well."

The death toll from the tsunami that slammed into coasts from India to Indonesia was believed to have topped 40,000 on Tuesday as rescuers scoured the sea for missing tourists and soldiers raced to recover bodies amid growing fears of disease.

Israel has also offered its assistance to India. Mofaz passed on the offer to Indian authorities through Israel's military attache Colonel Moshe Krawitz.

Mofaz offered aid of two kinds - a search and rescue team from the Home Front Command, as well as consignments of food and medicines.

In a parallel move, the Latet (Hebrew for "To give") organization will send a plane with aid to Sri Lanka on Tuesday. The aid, comprising tens of thousands of blankets donated by the IDF, as well as tents, nylon sheets, and water tanks, was sent request of the authority in the stricken areas.

A ZAKA rescue and recovery team left for the disaster areas Monday night armed with its equipment, including materials and tools for identifying bodies, as well as body bags.

"We are waiting for any instruction," Yehuda Meshi Zahav, the director of the organization, said Monday.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry plans to bring home Israelis injured on the Thai islands of Phuket and Ko Phi Phi. In the first stage of the evacuation, the Israelis will be bused to Bangkok, and from there they will board flights to bring them home.

"We have people who lost their money and documents. We will bring anyone back who so desires," said the Deputy Director General of the Foreign Ministry, Nissim Ben-Sheetrit.

Around 100 Israelis currently in Southeast Asia were still unaccounted for on Monday evening.