Massive searches for three youths missing on Sea of Galilee

Police and rescue services Monday night were desperately trying to find three people who went missing on the Sea of Galilee after they were swept by winds away from the coast and out into deep water.

The three young men lost on the water in separate incidents had all entered the lake on floating mattresses, but ran into trouble as they were drawn far from the shore.

Their disappearance came as more than 80 other people were rescued from the lake, after foundering in the water during the day as heavy winds surprised holiday bathers.

The Sea of Galilee is Israel’s largest fresh water lake and covers around 166² kilometers (64² miles). Its shores are lined with vacation sites that host tens of thousands of Israelis during the week-long Passover festival that began on Monday night.

According to Hebrew media reports, during the morning a man and woman, both 21 from the center of the country, set out on a floating mattress from the Lavnun Beach camping resort on the eastern shore of the lake. Strong easterly winds and currents pushed them out into deep water where the mattress overturned. A jet-ski user was able to save the woman, but the man was out of sight.

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The missing man’s brother told the Hebrew-language Ynet website that his sibling disappeared at around 10:30 in the morning. The man, who was not identified in the report, complained that rescue services were not quick enough in their response after he notified police that the pair were missing.

Later in the morning, two teenagers, both 17, who also floated out on a floating mattress, were swept out on the water after which the device became punctured. One of the teens was rescued, the other is still missing.

In a third incident, a number of teens set off from the Lavnun Beach on a floating mattress and were also taken westward, away from the shore, by the wind. Two were able to swim back to shore but the third, 19, went missing.

The inclement weather of strong winds and occasional rain were reportedly hampering the search.

אופנוע החילוץ של רשות הכינרת מנסה לאתר את הנעדר בכינרת
בצילומים- דגל אדום ואופנוע ים של איגוד ערים כנרת- בחוף לבנון .
צילום- רשות הכינרת pic.twitter.com/Y4LElK9sOI

— דסק חדשות און ליין (@yosefbadichi) April 12, 2017

A life guard, who had hauled five people from the water during the day, told Ynet that “people don’t take into consideration the easterly winds and get drawn out.”

The life guard claimed he had seen one of the groups from which a person went missing.

“I saw people who were swept out, I saw them raising their hands and asking for help. The other life guard asked a jet ski to bring them out of the water, but by the time he arrived, they didn’t find the second man, because he was drawn away after they became separated.”

Rescue services warned that venturing away from the shore line on rubber dinghies or floating mattresses was life-threatening.

“We call on the vacationing public on the shores of the Kinneret to listen to the instructions of the life-guard service and to refrain from entering the water on beaches that don’t have life guards,” the life guard service said in a statement, referring to Lake Kinneret, the Hebrew name for the Sea of Galilee.

In another accident a 45-year-old man died after he dehydrated during a hike in Nahal Arugot, a wadi near to the Dead Sea. Rescue teams from the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and the Ein Gedi park tried to resuscitate him, but he died at the scene. His body was removed from the wadi by helicopter.

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