Ten teenagers, including nine girls and a boy from a group of 25 students on a field trip near the Dead Sea, were killed on April 26 in flash flooding that has accompanied unseasonable, torrential rains all around Israel. The students who died were walking through the middle of a stream and were carried away by a massive wave.
Thirteen members of the group were evacuated to Soroka University Medical Center in Beersheva, where a mass-casualty incident was declared. The students were all 17- and 18-year-old high school seniors who had applied to a pre-military academy that arranged the trip. Two guides and a medic who accompanied the group were found unharmed.
The victims were identified as: Ella Or from Ma’ale Adumim, Tzur Alafi from Mazkeret Batya, Yael Sadan from Jerusalem, Mayan Barhum from Jerusalem, Gali Balali from Givatayim, Agam Levy from Moshav Herut, Romi Cohen from Moshav Maor, Shani Shamir from Shoham, Ilan Bar Shalom from Rishon Letzion, and Adi Raanan from Mikhmoret.
Funerals will take place around the country beginning on Friday.
Security Officer Dov Eilon of the Central Arava Regional Council told Ynet that the students “were walking down a stream when a giant wave suddenly came and swept them away,” adding that “there is a whole team that is working to understand how it happened and what their route was.”
The flooding came after highly unusual spring rains that have extended all the way to the south, from Beersheva to Eilat.
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said their grief is shared by all of Israel.
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