Israeli backpacker dies in Bolivia

The Foreign Ministry announced Wednesday that an Israeli tourist died during a trip to Bolivia. The 22-year-old woman was hit on the head by a falling rock, Hebrew-language media reported.

The ministry said the family of the deceased woman has been notified and that efforts were being made by the ministry and the Israeli consulate in Peru to return her body to Israel.

Earlier this year a 23-year-old man was killed in the country when the all-terrain vehicle in which he was traveling flipped over in the capital, La Paz.

Last year Dor Jan, 23, from Kiryat Ono in central Israel, was killed in a motorcycle accident.

In 2017 a 28-year-old Israeli woman was biking on the Yungas Road, popularly known as the “Road of Death” due to the prevalence of accidents there, when she began to experience altitude sickness. She died on the way to a hospital in La Paz.

The dangerous Yungas Road is a popular tourist destination for Israelis and other visitors to the country. Since 1999, at least 10 Israelis have died in accidents there.

Though Bolivia remains a popular destination for Israeli backpackers, its president, Evo Morales, severed diplomatic relations with Israel in 2009, calling its treatment of Palestinians a “genocide.”