A few days ago, a shooting attack at a gas station, left two fatalities on the spot: a teenager, and a 57 year old man, father of three, long time member of the Zaka volunteer organization. (RIP).
Zaka (search, rescue and identification) has been formally established in 1995 by israeli ultra orthodox people with the main purpose of dealing respectfully with the dead and wounded in disaster places.
After disaster occurrence, there is , sometimes, no corpse left but remaining pieces of it , scattered around. Zaka people collect the pieces and all the evidence available on the scene, submit it to the forensic teams and police to get a DNA, which is key to identify the victim. They then, help arrange the burial , bringing closure to the family.
Zaka teams are also sent to 'rescue and identification' missions abroad, after occurrence of eartquakes, tzunamis, volcano erruptions, terror attacks, mass shootings etc..
(In Thailand, the Zaka people were named 'the team that sleeps with the dead', as they transformed the pagodas into morgues to identify the tzunami victims).
Zaka volunteers are trained paramedics, and are great believers in the dignity of man - dead or alive. In 2016, the United Nations granted Zaka the status of a non-governmental consultant.
