B’nai B’rith World Center-Jerusalem Director Alan Schneider was on hand in Kiryat Shmona when delivery was made of an advanced all-terrain vehicle to the city’s Rapid Intervention Team (RIT).

The ATV that will be fitted with a hydraulic stretcher that will allow evacuation of the wounded from nearly any disaster scene – was part of B’nai B’rith’s donations to the Kiryat Shmona municipality as it faced ongoing rocket fire from Hezbollah in Lebanon. The donation of the ATV and two advanced observation drones with optical and thermal cameras, which were delivered last week, filled unmet needs identified by the municipality.

The donations were made possible by generous contributions to B’nai B’rith’s Israel Emergency Fund. At the handing-over ceremony with Mayor Avichai Stern and members of the RIT in attendance, Schneider said that B’nai B’rith was proud to have again come to the aid of Kiryat Shmona (the anchor of settlement in the Galilee panhandle) with major assets as it did after the Second Lebanon War when B’nai B’rith funded the establishment of the city’s Command and Control Center designed by Elbit Systems.

Stern thanked B’nai B’rith for coming to the city’s aid again as it faced another round of hostilities which, for the first time, has led to the evacuation of 100,000 residents along Israel’s border with Lebanon. He credited B’nai B’rith for responding “in lightning speed” to the city’s appeal, just weeks after meeting with the organization’s solidarity mission to Israel in December.