Soldier killed, officer seriously hurt in northern Israel crash

A soldier was killed Wednesday in a car crash in northern Israel and an officer, who was a passenger in the vehicle, was seriously injured, the IDF said.

Their military vehicle collided head-on with a civilian truck in the upper Galilee, according to the army.

The IDF later on Wednesday identified the victim as Staff Sergeant Ariel Harush, 21, from the central Israel city of Holon.

His family has been notified.

Harush was set to be buried on Thursday at 4 p.m. in the Holon military cemetery.

Military Police are investigating the crash, the army said. The family of the seriously injured officer has been informed.

In August, a soldier was lightly wounded in a car crash on a highway in southern Israel. While the soldier suffered only light injuries, there was extensive damage to the army truck, which overturned and fell in a ditch on the side of the highway.

It was the third major car accident involving military vehicles in the space of a month.

On July 17, an IDF officer, Cpt. Binyamin Rosenbloim from Arad, was killed when his car collided with a bus in the Eshkol region, near the Gaza Strip, the army said. The bus driver was moderately wounded and a passenger was lightly injured, according to medical officials.

That crash came four days after another, in which two soldiers were killed when their truck flipped over north of Eilat.

They were later identified as Master Sgt. Ya’akov Twati, 35, from Dimona and Pvt. Habtamu Abebe, 19, from Kiryat Gat.

In June, another soldier was killed and three others were wounded when a jeep they were traveling in overturned near the southern Gaza Strip border.