Acting President Delcy Rodríguez thanked the Israeli rescue delegation and praised their professionalism, in what is reportedly the first positive statement by a Venezuelan leader toward Israel in 27 years. Rodríguez said the Israeli team is 'highly skilled professionals', according to reports.
Acting President Delcy Rodríguez issued a statement Friday evening thanking the Israeli rescue delegation operating in Venezuela following last week's devastating earthquake, describing the team as 'highly skilled professionals with a high professional level'. The remark, first reported by Amichai Stein and corroborated across multiple Israeli news outlets, is the first positive official statement toward Israel by a Venezuelan head of state in 27 years.
The development came in a rapid sequence Friday: initial reports at 17:55 Jerusalem (version 1) quoted Rodríguez praising the team's infrastructure work; minutes later (version 3) she publicly thanked the team's professionalism; by the same timestamp (version 4) she called them 'highly skilled professionals'. By 18:47 Jerusalem, additional reporting from Amit Segal (N12) attributed the mission's coordination to the Jewish community in Venezuela and specifically thanked Rabbi Cohen. What began as a single-source report (Ariel Kahana, Israel Hayom) was confirmed within an hour by N12 and Stein — The Zioneer's own dispatch captured the full evolution.
This diplomatic shift follows the fall of the Maduro regime and a subsequent reorientation of Caracas' foreign policy, as The Zioneer reported on June 25. Israel's 16-person delegation, from Magen, Ready for Rescue, and SmartAID, deployed despite the 2009 rupture in diplomatic ties — a move that FM Gideon Sa'ar announced June 30, as The Zioneer reported. The rescue effort, part of a 16-nation international operation, continues in Valencia and La Guaira. On Monday, a survivor was rescued 106 hours after the quake, as Rodríguez announced.
It remains unconfirmed whether Rodríguez's remarks signal a broader policy change regarding normalization of ties, or whether they remain limited to humanitarian appreciation for the current rescue context. No state media readout of the full statement has been published beyond the excerpts reported by Israeli journalists.
6 developments
- DevelopingVenezuela’s vice president says international rescue teams en route after earthquake
- DevelopingVenezuela rescues survivor 106 hours after earthquake, interim president announces
- DevelopingIDF vanguard of Israeli relief mission lands in quake-hit Venezuela
- StrongIsrael's envoy to Venezuela appeals to public in Spanish ahead of aid mission arrival
Source and signal
- Internal intake