Can humanitarian aid succeed for Israel where diplomacy has failed?

​Nearly a month after two devastating earthquakes struck Venezuela, Israeli rescue teams continue to work on the ground, providing aid and support in a country with which Israel has no diplomatic ties.

​For the volunteers, the mission is not about diplomacy, although it may have diplomatic implications. They say it is about making a small difference in the world and serving as a light unto the nations.

​Relations between Venezuela and Israel were severed in 2009 over conflicts in Gaza. However, there was a shift at the beginning of this year after Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro was removed by U.S. President Donald Trump. Still, although there was some talk of renewed relations, nothing had changed before the earthquakes struck in late June.

However, when Caracas reached out for international assistance, Israel dispatched an IDF Home Front Command team to assist with search-and-rescue operations and national reconstruction. Moreover, several independent Israeli aid NGOs, from ZAKA to Early Starters, also showed up to provide help.

​IsraAID, for example, deployed an emergency response team, including emergency response specialists and humanitarian experts from the organization’s ongoing mission in neighboring Colombia and its global Emergency Response Team, focusing on mental health and psychological first aid, water, sanitation and hygiene and rapid needs assessment in affected communities.

​IsraAID CEO Yotam Polizer said at the time that the organization was devastated by the earthquakes but was driven to draw on its years of experience responding to emergencies throughout Latin America and the Caribbean to bring relief to some of the hardest-hit communities.

“IsraAID’s mission is to support people affected by humanitarian crises wherever we are needed,” Ethan Schwartz, communications director for IsraAID, told ALL ISRAEL NEWS. “As an international, non-governmental humanitarian organization, we go where the needs are highest, and our expertise can have the greatest impact, putting our ‘can-do’ Israeli ethos into practice and making Israeli expertise and technology count where it’s needed most.”

​He said his team was able to respond quickly, focusing on water and sanitation, mental health and community resilience, and child protection amid the ongoing crisis.

​Another organization, Early Starters, sent a team just this week to help provide safe spaces for young children living in tents or shelters where evacuees have been relocated after the disaster. These spaces give children and their parents a place to play, talk, and spend time together after losing their homes.

​Ran Cohen Harounoff, co-founder and CEO of the organization, was about to board a plane to Venezuela when he spoke with ALL ISRAEL NEWS. He explained that Early Starters has been involved in some of the world's most devastating crises, including earthquakes in Jamaica and Turkey, as well as the war in Ukraine, where the organization has become a fixture.

​“What we mainly do in times of crisis is create safe spaces for young children,” he explained. “In an emergency situation, these are made in a tent, shelter, or wherever earthquake evacuees are staying. We create a space for young children and their families to play, talk, and spend time together. They have no home, so there are many camps for families evacuated by the earthquake.”

​He said that what happens to children in the immediate aftermath of a disaster can affect them for the rest of their lives.

​Harounoff is the son of a Holocaust survivor. His mother, he said, was saved by a Christian family. Once he learned his family's story, he knew he wanted to be one of those who give back to others, regardless of their background, simply for the sake of doing good.

​He calls it “tikkun katan ba'olam,” which literally means “making a small repair in the world.” The phrase is derived from the Jewish concept of tikkun olam, repairing the world.

​This is far from the first time Israel has taken an active role in responding to a disaster despite strained or even non-existent ties with the country it is helping. In 2023, Israel dispatched a major IDF search-and-rescue delegation and established field hospitals in Turkey following devastating earthquakes.

The country did the same in 2011, when another earthquake struck Turkey, killing nearly 600 people and destroying thousands of structures. During that mission, the IDF focused on treating those who were rescued or evacuated in temporary rehabilitation centers and field hospitals.

​In 2003, after an earthquake struck Bam, Iran, Israel offered humanitarian aid and medical supplies. Although the assistance was rejected by the Iranian government, the IDF stressed on its website that “this demonstrated Israel's policy of offering assistance regardless of the political climate.”

​Between 2016 and 2018, Israel also operated along the Syrian border in the Golan Heights, treating Syrian civilians in need of medical assistance through what it called Operation Good Neighbor.

According to the Home Front Command, more than 4,000 people, including 1,409 children, were treated in Israeli hospitals and field hospitals. Israel also supplied Syrians in need with fuel, temporary housing, food, baby formula, clothing, and hygiene products.

​“In any crisis, our focus is on saving lives and building a stronger future, together with affected communities,” Schwartz said. “That’s the impact we measure: the families who have safe drinking water, the local frontline teams who gain new skills in self-care and dealing with trauma, the children who get a safe space to process their feelings in the chaos of a crisis. What we have seen time and again around the world, and now in Venezuela, is that these communities have welcomed our team with open arms.”

“At the end of the day, humanitarian aid can build bridges between people that might not have existed before. It’s not the aim of our work, but it’s a positive outcome we see again and again," he added.

​Harounoff expressed similar sentiments, saying he believes Early Starters' work strengthens relationships between the countries it serves and Israel, as well as with the Jewish people.

​He said the Venezuelan president remarked that she saw Israelis helping on the ground, something he believes will stay with her long after the crisis is over. He said he has witnessed the same pattern in other countries where he has worked, with leaders viewing Israelis and Jews differently after seeing their humanitarian efforts firsthand.

​“I worked with Syrian refugees in Greece, and they were shocked that the Israelis were helping them,” Harounoff recalled. “It changed their whole perspective about Israel.”

​While the goal of humanitarian work can never be to get something in return, providing help to those who need it most can leave a lasting impression. For the Israeli organizations, the government, and the IDF, those acts of compassion are first and foremost about saving lives. But they also have the power to build goodwill and reshape perceptions of Israel.