SMARTAID has been easing conditions in Gaza, noted its founding director Shachar Zahavi ahead of his current visit to Australia. In full coordination with the Israeli government and the IDF, the Israeli high-tech NGO is alleviating the plight of Gazans trapped in Hamas’s war on Israel.

“We started working closely with security forces to provide aid and to help other international organisations provide for civilians who are genuinely displaced,” Zahavi told The AJN, adding that Gazan relief efforts are “high on the priority [list] of the Israeli government”.

“Israel has repeatedly said that the enemy is Hamas. It’s not the Palestinian people.”

Since October 7, SmartAID has ramped up its operations in Israel’s north and south. It built a telecommunications complex in Ashkelon to coordinate aid distribution in the aftermath of the Hamas attacks. “We helped them to improve their social support to their community. We put up smart classes for kids, and shelters so they could continue studying.”

In 55 countries where SmartAID’s relief efforts in war and natural disaster zones are welcomed – including Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkey, some 30 African nations, Ukraine and Moldova – its philosophy is to consult first, said Zahavi. “We don’t come with a solution. We sit and listen and then we fill the needs.”

A central feature of its package is its SmartAID Trailer, a portable electronic hub enabling first responders to provide solar-cell emergency power, internet and tele-

communications for basic services, such as drone deliveries of food and medical supplies, and providing clean water.

Its volunteers have been active in Australian bushfire relief, adapting SmartAID templates for fighting North American wildfires to Australian conditions. Along with SmartAID Australia goodwill ambassador Alethea Gold, Zahavi will meet with MPs and business leaders in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra to explore further projects.

Much of the technological expertise – including cutting-edge hardware and software – comes from Israel or from Israeli expat communities of start-ups, innovators and manufacturers, volunteers and donors, including in Australia.

A grandson of Holocaust survivors, Zahavi joined disaster relief outfit Equilibre, then founded IsrAID, in which he worked for 17 years. He was initially attracted to volunteering at 21 after the 1994 Rwanda massacres, when he met children subsisting on water-soaked paper to fill their stomachs.

“I’ve never met anyone who didn’t change their perspective on their own problems after seeing so much suffering.”

For more information on Shachar Zahavi’s Australian community schedule, contact Alethea Gold, goldie@smartaid.org

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