Man, teenager killed in car crash in southern Israel

A man in his 40s and a 15-year-old boy were killed and two others were injured in a car accident in southern Israel on Tuesday evening.

The head-on collision between two cars took place on Highway 25, outside the town of Nevatim, on the outskirts of Beersheba. The fatalities were not immediately named.

A 12-year-old girl was in serious condition, according to the Ynet news website, with injuries to her chest and stomach. Another man in his 30s was moderately hurt, according to the report.

The deadly collision came as Israelis took to the roads by the hundreds of thousands for trips over the week-long Passover holiday, filling highways, beaches and parks.

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On Sunday, two women were killed and a third woman was critically injured in three separate accidents around the country.

Israel Nature and Parks Authority said some 200,000 Israelis visited the country’s national parks and nature reserves, mostly in the North, while over 100,000 crowded the beaches, as a heat wave reached its peak Tuesday, the according to Channel 10.

Across the country, unseasonably high temperatures topped 39° Celsius (102° Fahrenheit) at the Dead Sea, 37° (99°F) in Tiberius, 38°(100°F) in the Hula Valley, while Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Eilat reported highs of 37° (99°F).

The high temperatures were blamed for sparking the handful of brush fires reported in various locations throughout the country on Tuesday, including in Gan Yavne, on the banks of the Jordan River near Kibbutz Gadot and along the Lebanon border.

No serious injuries were reported.