Police send ‘findings’ from hunt for shark attack victim for forensic examination
Israel Police spokesman says efforts will continue until we can ‘bring relief to the family’; eyewitness says man shouted ‘I’ve been bitten, I’ve been bitten’ before disappearing
Police said Tuesday afternoon that they recovered “findings” during their ongoing search for a missing diver, feared dead after he was attacked by a shark off the coast of Hadera on Monday.
“We are on the second day of the search, both in the sea and on the shore, we are sparing no means,” said police spokesman Aryeh Doron.
Doron said that there were “several findings that were sent for [forensic] examination, and we will await the professional results,” adding that “we want to end this day by bringing relief to the family. Until there is a final answer for them, we will continue our efforts.”
The search on Hadera Stream Beach has enlisted rescue divers, jet skis and helicopters to find the missing man, reportedly in his 40s. Police have closed the beach as well as nearby beaches to swimmers until further notice.
People on the beach filmed Monday’s incident, an extremely rare shark attack in Israeli waters, with their phones. One man could be heard exclaiming, “Wow, wow, he’s with the shark, he’s fighting him,” as the man was seen in the distance. “They’re eating him, eating the man… Can’t see him.”
An eyewitness to the attack told Channel 12 news that the man shouted: “‘I’ve been bitten, I’ve been bitten.’ He waved his hands in the air, and after a few minutes the sharks dragged him to their side.”
The woman told the TV network that she saw “three sharks and a huge pool of blood. Since then, it’s like he disappeared. We saw it all happen, and then he suddenly disappeared.”
דיווחים דרמטיים על צוללן שננשך ככה"נ על ידי כריש בחוף הים בחדרה. בנתיים הבחור לא נמצא. חיפושים כעת בחוף. ואווו pic.twitter.com/DfbABlFuj1
— שלמה ⛈️ מזג אוויר (@MezgAvirIL) April 21, 2025
Channel 12 reported that the missing man lives in the Sharon area of central Israel, and around 2 p.m. he told his friend he planned on entering the water, which was the last time anyone heard from him. Early Tuesday morning, two items of clothing that likely belonged to the missing man were found on the beach, the network reported.
According to the Kan public broadcaster, the missing man is a fisherman who was swimming in the area with the fish that he had caught attached to his belt, which is believed to have attracted the shark.
The Ynet news site reported that the missing man is a married father, and claimed that he entered the water in order to swim near the sharks, after reading reports that they had been gathering in the area.
An unnamed friend of the man told Ynet that “I warned him against entering the sea.” Now, he said, “his wife is calling me all the time, I don’t know what to tell her.”
Videos from the scene on social media appeared to show sharks swimming among children just before the attack.
The shark in Hadera was filmed passing between children in Israel without anyone taking any action just moments before the attack happened. https://t.co/RNwhoXuQdM pic.twitter.com/mvXMLLVEHq
— Suppressed News. (@SuppressedNws) April 21, 2025
It would be just the third recorded shark attack in Israel, according to Yigael Ben-Ari, head of the Parks and Nature Authority’s marine ranger force. One person was killed in an attack in the 1940s.
The area, where warm water released by a nearby power plant flows into the sea, has for years attracted dozens of sharks between the months of October and May. Ben-Ari said swimming is prohibited in the area, but swimmers enter the water anyway.
Despite the police closure of a wide swath of beaches in the area following Monday’s incident, two young Israelis entered the water near Hadera on Tuesday, according to Ynet, although they were quickly called to exit, and did so.
Another eyewitness to the attack, Eliya Motai, told Ynet on Monday that “I was in the water, I saw blood and there were screams.”
Motai added that “I didn’t see much — just a little blood. I was a few meters from shore. It’s terrifying. We were here yesterday and saw the sharks circling us.”
Dusky and sandbar sharks, which frequent the area during the period between November and May, are not known to attack humans.
Over the past few days, fish die-offs in the Hadera Stream and the nearby Alexander Stream have attracted sharks to the shores of Hadera and Beit Yannai. The sharks eat dead, sick and wounded fish as they enter the sea, helping keep natural waters clean.
The Nature and Parks Authority on Monday said it “repeats its warning… against interacting with sharks. We again call on the public not to approach the sharks, which are protected animals.”
The Times of Israel Community.