Missing Israeli found in Jordan after two year search

An Israeli man, who has been missing for two years, was found in Jordan on Thursday with the help of the Israel Dog Unit (IDU) and a local nursing student from the Negev.

Shalom Rotban, 25 years old at the time of his disappearance, went missing on May 2, 2021, and was found alive and safe in Jordan, according to an IDU spokesperson.

Rotban was first discovered at a hospital in Jordan, where a Bedouin nursing student was able to contact his mother. An official in Jordan then contacted the IDU to confirm his identity, according to Maariv. 

After a two-year absence, the IDU and Israeli representatives in Jordan were able to bring Rotban to the border and reunite him with his family. His mother said she felt “as if I was born again.”

Multiple organizations involved in rescue

“We salute in these moments the angels of from the IDU and the other organizations that assisted in the search,” said IDU commander Mike Ben Ya’akov. “And in particular, the negotiation team and special operations management team from the IDU in foreign countries who came together with his family and a representative of the Am Yisrael Chai Foundation to Jordan to lead the operation, and accompanied Shalom until he crossed the border into Israel.”

Mike Ben Yaakov, commander of the Israeli Dog Unit (left) stands next to Shifra Hoffman, founder of Victims Against Arab Terror International at a protest in front of the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem on Thursday evening. (credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)

Ben Ya’akov then thanked a range of organizations and individuals from the President to the Foreign Ministry to the Israeli Ambassador in Jordan.

Kamal Div Altalkat, a nursing student in Jordan from Arara in the Negev told Maariv that she “had a test so I arrived at the hospital very early, suddenly the department head asked me if I knew Hebrew, so I answered yes. Suddenly they brought a man, he didn’t speak at all; they said he doesn’t have a passport and no identification details.

“At first he didn’t answer me, so I wrote everything in a notebook and then he started writing too. I asked him to write down a phone number he remembered, I called and his mother answered me, I sent her pictures and she said it was her son, then I called via video. She cried a lot, on the one hand, it’s not an easy case and it’s also exciting. I reassured her that everything was fine. After half an hour, more Hebrew speakers came to help me.”

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