Since the launch of Operation Roaring Lion, ZAKA Search & Rescue has been operating around the clock, responding to the full spectrum of emergencies across Israel while maintaining its core mission of Kavod HaMeis, honoring the deceased. Beyond routine responses to accidents and fatalities, ZAKA volunteers have been on the front lines of every Iranian and Hezbollah missile, rocket and drone strike.

Full-time ZAKA Search & Rescue liaisons are embedded with the IDF Homefront Command, mobilizing and directing ZAKA’s units even before the impacts occur. Equipment and personnel are continuously deployed to the field, with temporary trailers strategically deployed across the country to ensure rapid restocking and immediate return to service, often responding within the very neighborhoods volunteers have lived in for years.

Since the operation began, all special operations teams have been on emergency standby, operating under the guidance of ZAKA Search & Rescue’s national command center.

“Our incredible volunteers in the field are the first to arrive and the last to leave each scene of devastation, helping to extricate those trapped under the rubble so emergency medical services can triage, treat and transport, and helping recover those for whom medical treatment is no longer possible, giving their families as much closure as we can,” said ZAKA Search & Rescue Chief of Operations Chaim Weingarten. “Whether it’s a car accident, terror attack, rocket strike or complex recovery, our volunteers demonstrate extraordinary expertise, compassion and sensitivity on every scene.”

In addition to wartime operations, ZAKA Search & Rescue volunteers continue their broader emergency response work, responding to fatalities, traffic accidents, work accidents, drownings and other tragedies, as well as search and rescue missions for missing persons.

“ZAKA Search & Rescue’s responsibility is to the deceased and to the families who depend on us for certainty and dignity,” said ZAKA Search & Rescue CEO Dubi Weissenstern. “Our volunteers are not responding to abstract scenes, they are responding to homes they grew up in, to neighbors they saw hours ago. For the first time during this war, we have deployed our Resilience Unit to the scene of every rocket and drone strike scene where volunteers may encounter fatalities, ensuring our holy volunteers receive the support needed, on site, to continue their holy work and return back to their families.”

“Even in times of war, ZAKA Search & Rescue’s volunteers work tirelessly to ensure every individual is treated with respect and that families can lay their loved ones to rest with clarity and honor,” said ZAKA Search & Rescue’s U.S. Executive Director Moshe Rozenberg. “Each volunteer embodies our mission nonstop, standing beside families and authorities so dignity, compassion and closure remain at the center of every response.”

Founded to honor the dead in accordance with religious tradition, ZAKA has evolved into a full-scale emergency response network, with over 4,000 trained volunteers operating 24/7 across Israel to honor the dead, aid the living and bring dignity in times of devastation. Today, it operates a wide range of units – from rapid medical response and search and rescue to water recovery to culturally sensitive burial teams serving Israel’s Jewish, Bedouin, Arab and Druze communities to international units deploying at a moment’s notice to crises across the globe.

For more information, visit: https://zakaworld.org/.