At trial, ex-head of Bnei Zion academy apologizes for deaths of 10 students in flood

The former head of the Bnei Zion premilitary academy involved in the 2018 desert hike, in which 10 teenagers were swept to their deaths by a flash flood, apologizes at his trial.

“I’m ashamed. I’m sorry. I’m full of regret. I apologize for a disaster that happened under my responsibility, and with my direct involvement,” says former academy director Yuval Kahan, who was charged with negligent homicide.

“I ask for forgiveness for a disaster in which two trainees whom I loved and appreciated were killed. A disaster in which the granddaughter of someone who worked day and night with me for 11 years in the preparatory school was killed, and who sent her granddaughter on this trip and did not get her back.”

Nine girls and one boy were killed when the group was hit by flash floods in the Tzafit riverbed in the southern Dead Sea area.

A counselor at the academy who received direct warnings about the weather is facing charges of manslaughter.