CALI, COLOMBIA (VINnews)-— The head of Israel’s aid delegation to earthquake-stricken Colombia said Monday that the odds of finding survivors under the rubble have become slim nearly a week after the disaster.

Brig. Gen. (Res.) Yossi Pinto, commander of the IDF National Search and Rescue Unit, told reporters that hundreds of buildings were damaged in Cali, where the Israeli team is operating. He said only five sites of heavy destruction remain where people are trapped or still missing. The Israeli delegation is working at three of those sites.

“Tomorrow morning we will already enter the eighth day since the earthquake. We are aware that as time passes, the chances of finding people trapped alive decrease, and I estimate that over the next two days we will exhaust the stage of locating the missing people and rescuing them, and the authorities here will increasingly begin moving to the rehabilitation stage,” Pinto said.

Last Monday’s 7.4-magnitude earthquake in western Colombia killed nearly 300 people and injured nearly 4,000. At least 140 people remain missing, according to local authorities.

Israel’s 80-member delegation, named Brit Re’im (“covenant of friends”), includes IDF soldiers and officials from the Foreign and Defense ministries. Pinto said it is the largest aid group currently operating in Colombia.

In addition to search-and-rescue work, the team is helping local authorities assess damaged buildings. “Today we operated in areas with public buildings, schools, etc., to see that they are made operational and return life to its normal course. Here, tomorrow we will continue and inspect medical institutions, at the request of the Colombians,” Pinto said.