Man found dead, 14 rescued from trapped vehicles, 2 girls hurt by tree amid winter storm

Rescue services say 53-year-old found lifeless in Netanya home likely died of hypothermia; streets and supermarkets flooded; heavy snow falls on Mount Hermon; Byron hits Gaza hard

By ToI Staff 11 December 2025, 12:10 pmUpdated at 3:24 pm Edit
Footage shows cars in flooded streets and a flooded supermarket in Yavne, central Israel, as well as flooded tents in the Gaza strip, December 11, 2025 (Magen David Adom via X/Social media, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

A 53-year-old man was found dead with signs of hypothermia on Thursday, emergency services said, as winter storm Byron hit Israel in force for the second day in a row.

According to the ZAKA rescue service, paramedics were called to an apartment building in Netanya after a neighbor alerted authorities that a man had been found lifeless in his home.

The circumstances of his death were unconfirmed and his body was taken for autopsy at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine.

Temperatures dropped below 10°C (50°F) in much of central Israel overnight, as torrential rain poured down, causing widespread flooding.

In Yavne, 14 people at 8 different sites were rescued from trapped cars, as footage on social media showed water flooding a Rami Levy supermarket in the city.

Other clips posted online showed flood waters rising above cars’ wheels on a street in Rehovot, and emergency services paddling down a flooded street in the northern city of Baqa al-Gharbiya.

In Ashdod, in the south, 24.4 millimeters (0.96 inches) fell just between noon and 1 p.m., according to the Ynet news site. Between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m., 28.9 millimeters (1.14 inches) fell on Hakfar HaYarok, near Tel Aviv.

And the Magen David Adom ambulance service said it had received calls from drivers across the Shfela region and was working to rescue them from their trapped vehicles.

Two girls aged around 10 years old were lightly hurt by a falling tree at their school in Rishon Lezion, MDA said. The girls were taken by medics to Shamir Medical Center.

The Israel Meteorological Service had issued a “red warning” for “significant precipitation” along the central and southern coastline and in the Shfela region, which was to be in effect for 24 hours, starting Wednesday at 10 p.m. It said an estimated 100-150 mm of rainfall was expected in the affected areas.

It also issued an “orange warning” for flooding in the coastal plains area of central and southern Israel as well as the Negev and Judean desert regions.

In the country’s north, the cold temperatures and severe precipitation led to heavy snowfall on Mount Hermon and surrounding peaks.

On Wednesday, as the storm began to bear down on the country, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir issued a number of safety guidelines and restrictions to the entire military, including a prohibition on all outdoor training activities, restrictions on soldiers’ release from bases, and the limiting of routine security operations to essential activities only.

The guidelines would remain in effect until Friday at 6 a.m., and were subject to change based on ongoing assessments, the IDF added.

Flooding was expected in many areas of the south, where the IDF maintains several large training bases.

Around the country, drainage infrastructure was expected to struggle to cope with the amounts of precipitation in the coming hours and days. The Health Ministry said it had warned hospitals and clinics to make preparations to receive greater numbers of patients.

Two boys walk through a waterlogged alley at a makeshift camp housing displaced Palestinians in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on December 11, 2025. (BASHAR TALEB / AFP)

In the Gaza Strip, the storm was felt especially severely, as the majority of the enclave’s residents live in temporary housing such as tents, makeshift shelters and damaged buildings, as a result of the two-plus years of war that destroyed much of the Strip’s civilian infrastructure.

Videos posted to social media showed widespread flooding in Gaza’s tent encampments, as residents struggled to stay dry and warm amid the storm.

The Strip’s Hamas-run civil defense agency warned Gazans on Wednesday of flash floods and tents being blown away, particularly in the coastal Mawasi area near Khan Younis in the Strip’s south.

On Thursday morning, the agency said it had received over 2,500 distress calls from people in Gaza whose tents and shelters were damaged from winds, rainfall and flooding. The agency called for the urgent entry of mobile housing into the Strip to replace the tents.

It also called on displaced people to dig drainage ditches near their tents to mitigate the possibility of flooding.

The storm is expected to continue throughout Thursday into Friday, and is forecasted to relent midday Friday with clearer skies and slightly warmer temperatures returning for the weekend.

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