Man swept away by flash flood found dead
Tamer Alzagarneh, 21, from Bedouin town of Hura, was seen being carried off Monday near Hebron; body recovered 25 kilometers away, close to Beersheba
A man who was swept away in a flash flood, triggering a desperate hours-long search by emergency services, was found dead on Tuesday morning, dozens of kilometers away from where he had disappeared the day before.
“To our great regret, the body of the missing person was found,” the Israel Police said in a statement.
He was identified by Hebrew media as Tamer Alzagarneh, 21, a resident of the Bedouin town of Hura in the Negev.
Searches for Alzagarneh began in the afternoon on Monday, after he was seen being carried away by floodwaters in the Meitar stream, a tributary of the Hebron stream, which flows south into the Negev region.
Alzagarneh and another man were caught on video attempting to help extract a car that was half-submerged in the rushing water.
The water abruptly caught the car, and though the other man managed to scramble to safety, Alzagarneh was pulled in. As helpless bystanders watched, he was seen struggling against the water, unable to get to the bank and out of reach of dozens of people just meters away, until he was swept out of sight.
אדם נסחף בשיטפון ליד מעבר מיתר לכיוון הר חברון.
מתנדבי יחידת החילוץ עציון-יהודה ושוטרי תחנת חברון של משטרת מחוז ש"י, פועלים יחד עם צוות מיחידת החילוץ ערד של מחוז דרום בסריקות לאיתורו pic.twitter.com/e3UH8ODeKv
— Haim Goldich | חיים גולדיטש (@HGoldich) December 29, 2025
Large numbers of police and emergency service personnel, aided by drones and volunteer rescue workers, spent hours combing both banks of the river, police said, trying to find him.
The search was eventually called off around midnight, according to Hebrew media reports, then restarted in the morning.
Soon afterward, civilians discovered Alzagarneh’s body outside Beersheba, some 25 kilometers (15 miles) away from where he was swept away.
An unnamed cousin told Channel 12 that the family had spent a sleepless night worrying.
“We hoped against hope that he would come home. He was a man who wanted to help others and he died doing that,” his cousin told the network. “We can’t believe it. We are shattered.”
תאמר אלזגארנה, תושב חורה שנסחף בנחל באר שבע, אותר הבוקר ללא רוח חיים בסמוך לשכונת נווה נוי@_Gitsis_ pic.twitter.com/6SmmrCinwH
— גלצ (@GLZRadio) December 30, 2025
The flash floods came as Israel was drenched with heavy downpours in much of the country.
On Sunday, emergency services managed to rescue three members of a family whose van was caught in a flooded streambed in southern Israel.
The Times of Israel Community.