American tourist’s body found after beach drowning

The bodies of a man and a woman who went missing Saturday in the Sea of Galilee and the Mediterranean respectively were found by authorities Monday morning.

The woman, a 19-year-old American tourist, had disappeared off a beach at the Tel Aviv suburb of Bat Yam on Saturday. She had entered the water with two friends and was pulled in by currents. Rescue forces, including divers, had been scouring the coast ever since.

Her body washed up in Tel Aviv early Monday.

The man’s body was recovered in the area of Kibbutz Degania Alef, near the southern tip of the Sea of Galilee.

The 21-year-old man, from the Arab city of Arrabeh, had entered the freshwater lake on an inflatable raft along with two friends on Saturday evening, and the three were pulled away from the shore by currents.

One of the young men managed to make it back to Berniki Beach on the western side of the lake, and a second man was rescued by water police services. The search for the third man began on Saturday evening, but was halted at nightfall and renewed at first light on Sunday, and then again on Monday.

Police, the army and volunteers were all involved in the rescue effort, and boats, jet skis, a police helicopter, drone and divers were also deployed.

On Sunday a 3-year-old boy drowned in a pool at a guesthouse in the Lower Galilee region, Walla news reported.

The family, from the central city of Bnei Brak, was staying at the guesthouse in the agricultural community of Yavne’el in the country’s north.

Paramedics tried to resuscitate the boy and then rushed him to the Galilee’s Poriya Medical Center, where staff tried for an hour to save him but eventually declared the infant dead.

Police have opened an investigation into the incident.