Two workers injured in Golan Heights oil drilling explosion
Police open investigation into incident; separately, construction worker hurt in an accident in Ashkelon
Two workers were injured early Monday morning in an explosion at an oil drilling site in the Golan Heights.
Magen David Adom first responders provided treatment to the two men at the scene, on Route 87 between the towns of Katzrin and Yehuda. They were then taken to the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa with serious injuries. MDA said one was in critical condition.
The circumstances of the incident were unclear, and the Israel Police opened an investigation.
The Afek Oil and Gas company, which operates the drilling site, told Channel 10 that the workers were not in life-threatening condition and that the company had operated in coordination with the relevant authorities.
Also Monday, a 50-year-old construction worker sustained moderate injuries when a heavy object fell on him at a work site in Ashkelon. MDA paramedics took him to Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot.
Lethal workplace accidents occur regularly at construction sites in Israel. Despite the government increasing the number of safety inspections, the number of fatalities surged in 2016.
Only half of all deaths at construction sites between 2011 and 2015 were investigated, according to research carried out by the Knesset Research and Information Center, and in over 50 percent of those cases probes were closed due to inconclusive evidence.