Man crushed to death by factory machine; construction worker falls to his death

Two men were killed in separate work accidents at different locations Monday amid a spate of fatal incidents that brought the toll of workplace deaths to 10 since the beginning of the year, according to a watchdog group.

During the afternoon a man, 55, was crushed by a machine at a factory in the southern port city of Ashkelon.

Magen David Adom paramedics attempted to resuscitate the man, who suffered multiple injuries, but were forced to declare him dead.

Kan news reported that another worker was lightly injured as he tried to pull the first man from the machine. The injured worker was taken to the city’s Barzilai Medical Center for treatment.

The death came hours after a construction worker was killed when he fell from scaffolding that collapsed on the eighth floor of a building site in the coastal city of Netanya.

The man was identified as Yasser Hassan Zaabut, 35, a Palestinian resident of the Nur Shams refugee camp in the West Bank.

A second man, 40, who was apparently hit by a part of the falling scaffolding, was taken to the hospital in good-to-moderate condition.

MDA said a number of other workers required treatment at the site for anxiety.

Israel Police detained seven supervisors at the site, the Israel Hayom daily reported. Their remand will be extended according to the needs of the investigation.

Worker deaths have plagued the construction industry for years, largely because of poorly enforced safety codes.

Last week, two construction workers were killed in Ashdod when a wall collapsed on them during electric cable infrastructure work. Less than two weeks earlier, a construction worker was killed by a collapsing wall at a site in the central city of Bnei Brak and a week before that, two construction workers were killed within minutes of each other in accidents at separate locations.