Woman killed, 8-year-old girl seriously hurt in West Bank traffic accident

Victim identified as Har Brakha resident Keren Ora Yoskovitch; baby lightly injured; two others also hurt in collision on Route 60, near Ariel settlement

Emergency services at the scene of a deadly road accident on Route 60 in the West Bank, October 31, 2022. (Magen David Adom)
Emergency services at the scene of a deadly road accident on Route 60 in the West Bank, October 31, 2022. (Magen David Adom)

A woman in her 30s was killed and a young girl was seriously injured Monday in a collision between two cars and a truck on a central road in the West Bank.

The woman, later identified as Keren Ora Yoskovitch, a resident of the Har Brakha settlement in the West Bank, was trapped inside one of the smashed vehicles when emergency services and military medical teams arrived to help. A man, also around 30, was trapped in another vehicle, according to Magen David Adom medics who attended the scene.

The accident happened on Route 60, close to the Rehelim Junction and the settlement of Ariel.

Though rescuers were able to free the woman from the car, she was unconscious and efforts to revive her were unsuccessful. Medics declared her dead at the scene.

She will be buried at the Ariel New Cemetary at 8:30 p.m. on Monday.

The 8-year-old girl, who was in the same car, suffered multiple injuries. She was anesthetized and put on a ventilator, then taken to Beilinson Medical Center for treatment. In addition, a baby in the car was lightly injured. Channel 12 reported that the girl and the baby were the deceased woman’s children.

The trapped man was also released and taken to the hospital with moderate injuries. A Palestinian who was lightly injured was treated by Red Crescent emergency service, MDA said.

Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council, blamed the government for the accident, citing neglect of West Bank roads, many of which are narrow and lack shoulders.

“This serious accident could have been avoided,” he said, according to the Israel National News website. “For years we’ve cried out and strived so that this place would be defined as high-risk, with transportation investment that would prevent the accidents that happened here and the accident that happened here now.”

The Or Yarok road safety lobby group cited Central Bureau of Statistics figures showing that 38 people were killed last year on roads in the West Bank, and 33 in 2022. There were another 1,011 people injured last year on West Bank roads.

Or Yarok CEO Yaniv Jacob also blamed the poor state of roads in the West Bank.

“Years of neglect translate into deadly accidents,” Jacob said in a statement. “A lack of basic infrastructure to compensate for driver mistakes and the lack of police presence to prevent life-threatening traffic offenses are major factors in the number of fatal traffic accidents.”

Since the beginning of the year, a total of 285 people have been killed in accidents on the country’s roads.

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