ZAKA

ZAKA (Hebrew: זק"א, abbreviation for Zihuy Korbanot Ason, זיהוי קרבנות אסון, lit. 'Disaster Victim Identification') is the name of a series of voluntary post-disaster response teams in Israel, each operating in a police district (two in the Central District due to geographic considerations). They are recognized by the Israeli government. The full name is "ZAKA – Identification, Extraction and Rescue – True Kindness" (זק"א - איתור חילוץ והצלה - חסד של אמת). The two largest ZAKA factions are Zaka Tel Aviv and ZAKA Search and Rescue. ZAKA faced insolvency before 7 October 2023. Given the job of retrieving the dead bodies after the October 7 attacks, they started fund-raising on 8 October 2023. By 31 January 2024, they had raised over 50 million shekels ($13.7 million). According to Haaretz, ZAKA's conduct in the aftermath of the attacks was unprofessional, including mixing up remains and spreading misinformation about atrocities that never happened in order to raise money.