In 2025, ZAKA Search & Rescue Responded To 7,000+ Cases, Saving Lives And Providing Dignity To The Deceased

Throughout the year, ZAKA volunteers were deployed to over a dozen terror attacks, more than 2,300 traffic accidents including the recovery of 160 fatalities and over 500 Chesed Shel Emet operations involving work accidents, drownings and other unnatural deaths. Teams were also called to more than 130 cases in which individuals were found deceased after decomposing in their homes, situations that require careful victim identification and sensitive coordination with families and authorities.

In addition, ZAKA carried out over 40 search and rescue operations for missing persons and responded to nearly 4,000 rapid response and medical emergency calls. In many of these cases, volunteers arrived first on scene, stabilizing situations and preserving critical information while maintaining dignity for victims.

“ZAKA’s responsibility is to the deceased and to their families who need answers,” said ZAKA CEO Dubi Weissenstern. “Our volunteers work quietly and professionally to ensure every person is treated with respect and that families can bury their loved ones with dignity and certainty.”

ZAKA’s work in 2025 also included international deployments focused on victim identification and recovery. Following a deadly terror attack in Sydney on the first night of Hanukkah, ZAKA sent an experienced team to assist local authorities and the Jewish community with identification efforts and Kavod Hameit. Additional responders were deployed to Texas after severe flooding along the Guadalupe River to support recovery operations and help return the deceased to their families.

“In moments of tragedy, families are searching for answers and for their loved ones to be treated with care,” said ZAKA U.S. Executive Director Moshe Rozenberg. “ZAKA’s role is to support authorities with expertise while ensuring that dignity and family closure remain at the center of the response.”

To support its mission, ZAKA operates a range of specialized units, all designed to complement its core Chesed Shel Emet and victim identification work. The Victim Identification Unit leads recovery and identification operations nationwide and serves as the foundation of ZAKA’s activities.

Supporting units include the Search and Rescue Unit for missing persons, the Rapid Response Motorcycle Unit for immediate medical assistance and the Resilience and Healing Unit which supports volunteer wellbeing. ZAKA also operates Divers and Jet Ski Units for water recovery, Jeep and ATV Units for difficult terrain and a Drone Unit for aerial search and mapping.

ZAKA maintains teams staffed by Muslim, Druze and Christian volunteers who serve their own communities with cultural and religious sensitivity. Its International Rescue Unit, recognized by the United Nations, deploys abroad to natural disasters and mass casualty events.

Additional support services include a Legal Unit that assists families with required legal processes and helps prevent unnecessary autopsies and a dedicated unit that provides essential equipment to families during the mourning period.

“Every case represents a life and a family,” Weissenstern added. “In 2025, ZAKA remained focused on its responsibility to bring dignity, certainty and closure in the most difficult circumstances.”

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/.