Israel's field hospital in Nepal has now treated almost 1,000 patients and is acquiring a reputation as the best place for the injured to come for care.

"Because of the good care that Israelis are giving, injured people from my village want to transfer here," said 18-year-old Dawa Bohola, sitting in the orthopaedics tent with his injured foot in a treatment bath.

He was painting outdoors at the time of the quake. "There was a landslide and a large rock fell on my foot. I couldn't walk and all around me people were screaming," he said. Mr Bohola received treatment at the hospital, was released, and was back on Tuesday for follow-up.

"He was very dirty and in lots of pain when he first came," said the nurse treating him, Meir Harush. "To release someone on their feet, or even on one foot, is amazing."

At night, Mr Harush, who had left nursing to work as a lawyer, stoops in his tent to work on his clients' contracts on a laptop.

It is hard to believe that this unit arrived flat-packed from Israel just over a week ago, as 100 tons of kit. Now, it is a fully-functioning hospital with operating rooms, imaging facilities, an advanced lab, and an intensive care section, all under canvas. There is also a synagogue, a kosher kitchen and an eruv.

Some patients are fighting for their lives, such as the 37-year-old woman in the intensive care unit who has lost her daughter. Others are getting used to harsh new realities, like the young man with head injuries and a stump where his right arm used to be.

But there are those with cause to smile, such as the mother of the baby in the incubator, and many who feel that Israeli doctors have given them hope.

Bika Rana, a 25-year-old Nepalese soldier, sits in a wheelchair and expresses his admiration for the hospital. "I'm happy, and hoping that I will be able to get back to my normal life," he says, having recounted how his house collapsed on top of him while he tried to escape from it.

The medics here - career soldiers and army reservists - ride the ups and downs with the locals, and miss their own families. But the sense of duty keeps them going. Tami Halperin, a mother-of-three working in the lab, says: "The army educates us that this is one of the missions of our medical corps, so we're doing our mission."

Ashraf Kheir, a Druze-Arab nurse from northern Israel, agrees - and so do his family and community. "I just received a letter from my father saying how proud he is of me," he reveals.

As the 150 Israelis at the hospital treat the Nepalese wounded, the Chabad rabbi in Nepal, Chezky Lifshitz, pays daily visits to a village where there are rows of bodies outdoors, checking their wallets to see if any have Jewish names so that he can arrange burials. So far, he has found two bodies with Jewish names. "We don't know if they are Jewish, but we're checking."

He is on the lookout for diaspora Jews - all Israelis are now accounted for, after the body of the last missing Israeli, Or Asraf, was found on Sunday and readied for burial.

● World Jewish Relief has so far raised £263,000 from the UK community, which will pay for food, tents, fresh water and hygiene kits. Josh Simons, World Jewish Relief's senior programmes manager, said: "I've been in Nepal for several days but the enormity of the disaster is just sinking in. With less than two weeks until the monsoon season starts, discussions around shelter are taking priority… I've never seen such destruction."