Three Jordanians swept to Israeli side of Dead Sea

Three Jordanians, a soldier and two girls, were swept into Israeli waters on Saturday on the northern shores of the Dead Sea. After being inspected by doctors and police, they were returned to Jordan.

The girls, 10 and 14, were staying at a resort on the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea. On Friday afternoon they entered the water on inner tubes and were swept westward toward the opposite side of the salt lake. The solider attempted to aid them but was carried away as well.

They drifted for ten hours until reaching the opposite shore around 4:00 a.m. on Saturday. They landed near an Israeli resort in the West Bank on the shore of the Dead Sea.

“We treated them, let them eat, drink and shower and invite an IDF medical officer to give them medical treatment, as well as the police,” Dina Dagan, manager of the Israeli Dead Sea resort Biankini, where the three washed up, told Ynet. “The girls remembered their parents’ telephone number and we called them. They said they’d thought they’d died.”

Dagan, who speaks Arabic, said the girls were refugees who’d left Iraq for Jordan two years ago. “[The soldier] told them the whole way that they were arriving at an enemy state and was afraid they’d be shot, but in the end they said they want to remain here.”

Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty in 1994.

“They’re always denigrating us and, behold, they see that we receive them nicely,” said Dagan.