Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Israel Aiding Paraguayans Displaced By Worst Flooding in 50 Years

Israel will donate food and assistance kits to help Paraguayans displaced by massive flooding in the region, the worst in half a century.

“The State of Israel is sympathetic to our sister nation of Paraguay in this difficult moment when thousands of citizens have been forced to leave their homes behind,” the Israeli Embassy in Asuncion said. “We are ready to support the government to provide humanitarian aid.”

Some 100,000 Paraguayans have been displaced by the flooding caused by torrential rain, which was triggered by the El Nino weather phenomenon and started falling in the region on Dec. 18. Some rivers have reached a height of 32 feet and burst floodwalls.

The flooding had a stronger impact on residents of low-lying slums, who sought shelter in camps on higher ground and are sleeping in improvised tents.

Another 50,000 people also were stricken by floods in bordering areas in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil, but Paraguay was the most-affected nation.

Israel reopened its Paraguay embassy in July after it was closed in 2002 due to financial constraints. The countries have strong ties in the fields of anti-terrorism, trade and agriculture.

Paraguay is home to a Jewish community of about 1,000.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:

  • Credit the Forward
  • Retain our pixel
  • Preserve our canonical link in Google search
  • Add a noindex tag in Google search

See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.