Body found next to overturned truck near Dead Sea

Israelis told to avoid south as unseasonable rains continue

By ToI Staff 27 April 2018, 7:57 am

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Military helicopters search for missing teens swept away in the flooding of the Tzafit River, a riverbed near the Dead Sea in southern Israel, on April 26, 2018. (Maor Kinsbursky/Flash90)

Police early on Friday located a body near an overturned truck in a flooded area in the Dead Sea region.

The driver of the vehicle was missing, police said.

“Near the community of Ein Tamar, an overturned truck was found without a driver,” police said. “During searches near the truck, a body, which is not that of the driver, was found and transferred for identification.”

Ayman Jaber, 47, a father of four from Tayibe, was earlier reported missing.

In light of flooding in the area, police delayed additional search efforts for the driver until sunrise on Friday morning.

The Dead Sea region has been battered by unseasonable rains and lethal flash floods since Wednesday. Authorities were advising all Israelis to avoid the Dead Sea and Arava desert regions on Friday, with more torrential rainfall and flooding along its riverbeds on the weather forecast, and road closures anticipated throughout the day.

On Thursday, 10 Israeli students were killed by flash floods during a hike south of the Dead Sea. The hike went ahead despite warnings of life-threatening weather conditions. Nine young women and one young man were killed when the group was hit by flash floods in the Tzafit River, a riverbed in the southern Dead Sea area.

Volunteers from the ZAKA emergency response service transport the bodies of Israeli teenagers killed in a flash flood near the Dead Sea on April 26, 2018. (ZAKA)

Authorities confirmed the deaths of the first nine victims on Thursday evening, and said rescue teams were still working to locate a young woman missing since the incident. Early Friday morning, her body was reported found near Neot Hakikar, south of the Dead Sea.

Two students were lightly to moderately injured, and the other 13 in the group were located and rescued unharmed.

Seven of the 10 fatalities were identified as of Thursday night as Shani Shamir from the central city of Shoham; Ella Or from Ma’ale Adumim; Maayan Barhum and Yael Sadan from Jerusalem; Tzur Alfi, the only young man who was killed, from the central town of Mazkeret Batya; Agam Levy from the central Israeli town of Herut; and Romi Cohen of Maor, near Hadera.

Police on Friday said the principal of the pre-military academy and an instructor had been arrested.