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Volunteer efforts try to provide aid to those impacted by the Israel-Iran conflict
Zaka Search and Rescue volunteers provide relief efforts on the ground.
FOX 2 - As missile and drone strikes continue across several countries in the Middle East, the human toll of the conflict continues to grow.
The backstory:
There are people on the ground responding to death and destruction - and among those responding is Nachman Dyksztejn.
He is a ZAKA search and rescue volunteer in Israel who says his team recently responded to a missile strike in Beit Shemesh near Jerusalem.
Nine people were killed when a missile hit a shelter and synagogue.
"We took them out one-by-one and tried to give the first help and then they were sent to the hospitals," said Dyksztejn. "The minute you finish with the sick people, you start to look around you and (see) what else can you do.
"This is what ZAKA is doing really. We are coming to the first and leaving the last. That means I'm coming the first to help keep lives, but after, we are always staying to the last to take care of the bodies and even the last drop of blood."
The broader conflict has brought strikes to Israel, Iran, Lebanon, Iraq and Gulf states including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Jordan. Reported death tolls top 1,200 in Iran, nearly 600 in Lebanon, 12 in Israel and at least 16 in Iraq.
Dyksztejn says when volunteers arrive, their first priority is helping the wounded.
Only after the living are cared for do they begin the careful work of recovering the dead and preserving dignity for the victims.
"When you arrive to a situation like this you see the children, you see the bodies and you see they are not complete bodies - you need to find the pieces sometimes," he said. "It's very difficult. Sometimes they are in a place where everything was on fire, like a big fire around and the fire was so big you can’t imagine what happened there.
"It’s not easy but somebody needs to do it."
Iran has reportedly laid naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important oil shipping routes.
U.S. forces say they destroyed 16 Iranian mine-laying boats while trying to keep the waterway open.
To learn more about ZAKA, go here.
The Source: