Israel Sends 30 Medics to Jamaica's Storm-Wrecked Hospitals

Israel is sending a medical delegation to Jamaica to help treat people affected by the hurricane that struck the island, according to a joint statement by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The statement said the mission was being sent under the direction of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and in coordination with the Foreign Ministry.

The delegation is headed by the Deputy Director-General of the Health Ministry, Dr Sefi Mandelovich, with medical leadership from Professor Ofer Marin, director of Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. It comprises roughly 30 doctors, nurses and paramedical staff drawn from hospitals across Israel. Dr Mandelovich and Professor Marin left the previous evening as an advance team; the rest of the group departed the same day as the announcement. They will work in two Jamaican hospitals that have taken in evacuees from the affected areas, reinforcing local staff and helping with the injured and with emergency cases. The size and composition of the team, the statement said, were set at the request of and in coordination with Jamaica's own health ministry.

What the storm did to Jamaica's health system

Jamaica was hit on 28 October 2025 by Hurricane Melissa, which made landfall as a Category 5 storm. According to the Pan American Health Organization, reviewing the response three months on, the hurricane caused 88 deaths and physical damage to 785 health facilities across the countries it struck, 80% of them in Cuba. In Jamaica four hospitals were severely affected and 60 primary health care centres sustained major damage. Several major referral hospitals were left with bed occupancy above safe thresholds.

Days after the storm, the Jamaica Observer reported that five major hospitals in the island's west and south had been devastated and that Black River Hospital had been destroyed outright, prompting international relief organisations to set up temporary field hospitals. PAHO's later review recorded 17 emergency medical teams deployed during the acute phase of the response, 12 of them international.

A delegation built around field-hospital experience

The Israeli team's medical leader was described by the Algemeiner, reporting on the mission's return two weeks later, as a hospital director who had commanded Israel Defense Forces field hospital operations for two decades. The same report said the 30-strong team had integrated into two hospitals in the disaster zone rather than setting up a separate facility of its own.

The diplomatic half of the mission

Alongside the medics, the Foreign Minister ordered the immediate dispatch to Jamaica of Israel's Ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Raslan Abu Rukun, with an additional diplomatic team, to coordinate humanitarian assistance with the Jamaican government.

In the statement, the Health Ministry's Director-General, Moshe Bar Siman Tov, said the delegation reflected the dedication of Israel's healthcare system and its readiness to help other countries in crisis, adding that the system had built experience in disaster and mass-casualty situations both at home and on missions abroad. The Foreign Ministry's Director-General, Eden Bar Tal, called the mission a reflection of Israel's commitment to help disaster-hit regions, described Jamaica as an important partner in the Caribbean, and recalled that Israel had established a field hospital in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. Israel's departure for Jamaica was also noted by The Times of Israel on the day the main group flew out.

What the statement did not say

The joint statement did not name the two Jamaican hospitals the team would work in, or say where on the island they are. It gave no planned duration for the deployment, no cost, and no breakdown of the delegation by specialty. It also did not say whether Israel was sending equipment or supplies alongside the personnel.