Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to send a team of counter-terrorism experts to assist Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan in the ongoing search and rescue operations of the abducted female students.

Netanyahu, who is on a visit to Japan, spoke with the Nigerian President and told him that “Israel expresses deep shock over the crime that has been committed against the girls,” according to a statement.

The Israeli anti-terrorism experts will collaborate with teams from the US and the UK in battle against the Islamist Boko Haram group. Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the April 14-15 kidnapping of 276 female students from the Government Secondary School in the town of Chibok in Borno State, Nigeria.

“The President briefed Netanyahu on actions already being taken by Nigeria’s armed forces and security agencies in the search and rescue operations, noting that Nigeria would be pleased to have Israel’s globally-acknowledged anti-terrorism expertise deployed in Nigeria,” Jonathan’s special adviser on media and publicity Reuben Abati said in a statement.

“Netanyahu, who expressed Israel’s total condemnation of the mass abductions, said that the team of experts from his country, who will soon arrive in Nigeria, will work in collaboration with teams from the United States and Britain who are already in the country and their Nigerian counterparts to intensify the search for the girls,” Abati said.

Netanyahu said in a statement: “Israel expresses its deep shock at the crime committed against the girls. We are willing to help assist in locating the girls and fighting the terror.”