Flash flood kills 9 Israeli teenagers

JERUSALEM — At least nine Israeli teenagers on a “bonding” trip were killed, and one was still missing, after a flash flood swept them away Thursday while they were hiking in a riverbed near the Dead Sea.

Rescue workers, soldiers and volunteers in helicopters, jeeps and rubber boats and on foot frantically searched for the missing teenager as night fell in Wadi Tzafit, a popular hiking destination in dry weather that can become a death trap with little warning in a rainstorm.

Two youths were hospitalized for hypothermia and other injuries, and 13 were rescued unharmed, officials said. The fatalities were reported by Zaka, an Israeli rescue and recovery organization. Eight of the teenagers who died were female and one was a male, according to Israeli media reports.

The trip was led by Bnei Zion, a Tel Aviv-based leadership academy for high school graduates waiting to be called for military service. But Channel 12 in Israel reported that many in the group, including some who were killed, were prospective participants in the program who were still in their final year of high school.

All told, about 25 young people had been hiking in the riverbed in a canyon with “very deep slopes,” said Nadav Eylon, chief security officer for the Central Arava Regional Council, which oversees an area south of the Dead Sea.

Eran Doron, head of the nearby Ramat Negev Regional Council, described the site as “a canyon where the moment a flash flood comes, there is no way out.”

“There are walls of rock between [13 feet to 65 feet] high on the sides of the canyon,” Doron added.

Officials said survivors reported that they heard the sound of rushing water only about a minute before being hit by the flash flood.