Israeli Home Front Command rescuers are working alongside Colombian emergency teams in Cali after a devastating earthquake, searching collapsed structures for people still reported missing. Bodycam footage shows the Israeli personnel moving carefully through damaged concrete buildings, navigating unstable debris and examining impact sites as part of an international rescue effort. The mission is being carried out by an 80-person Israeli humanitarian delegation, known as the “Alliance of Brothers,” which was sent to Colombia following the August 10 earthquake. The Home Front Command regularly deploys specialized search-and-rescue personnel overseas after major disasters, drawing on expertise developed for collapsed-building emergencies.

The Israeli team was requested alongside rescue personnel from the United States, Ecuador and El Salvador as Colombian authorities confronted the enormous scale of the disaster. At its assigned sites, the delegation has reportedly located all of the missing individuals it was tasked with finding and helped authorities assess damaged structures so that more than 250 families could safely return home. The operation has required rescuers to work methodically around potentially unstable buildings, where a single mistake could endanger both survivors and emergency personnel. The effort demonstrates why international search-and-rescue teams can become critical in the days immediately following a major earthquake.

About a week into the mission, the operation is beginning to shift from an intensive search for missing people toward structural surveys and recovery assistance. Israeli personnel are expected to examine dozens of damaged buildings and provide assessments that can help local authorities determine which structures remain dangerous and which can potentially be reoccupied. That transition is crucial because the danger does not disappear once the initial search ends; weakened buildings, fractured concrete and unstable sections can continue threatening residents and rescuers long after the earthquake itself has stopped.

The footage from the mission offers a striking look at the difficult work taking place behind the headlines, with rescuers entering environments where visibility, stability and access can change from one moment to the next. For the Israeli delegation, the mission represents more than a search for survivors—it is also an effort to support Colombia’s recovery while sharing specialized disaster-response expertise with local teams. As the rescue phase gives way to structural assessment, the central challenge now becomes helping Colombian communities determine where it is safe to return and where the earthquake has left behind dangers that cannot be seen from the street. The mission also underscores how quickly a disaster can turn international cooperation into a race against time to save lives and restore a sense of safety.