Dead Sea tragedy: Israeli child killed, eight injured in landslide

The Environmental Protection Ministry will establish a special investigative committee to look into the landslide that occurred on Thursday morning at Nahal David near the Dead Sea, which killed an eight-year-old boy and injured eight others. 

“In the coming days, I will bring together the relevant professionals to establish the committee,” Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman said. She added that she had spoken to the head of the Tamar Regional Council and the director of the Nature and Park Authority and instructed them to close the Nahal David and Nahal Arugot reserves until further notice. 

The boy killed in the incident was identified as Yehuda Levi, son of Moshe and Rachel Levi, a resident of the Hemdat settlement in the Jordan Valley. According to Magen David Adom (MDA), a four-year-old girl and two others were moderately injured. The rest were only mildly hurt. 

“This is a difficult day and a terrible disaster,” Silman said. “I send condolences to the family of the child who was killed while on a trip with his family and send wishes for recovery to the injured.”

MDA helicopters were called to the scene to help rescue the people injured by the rocks. A large number of forces from the police, Fire and Rescue Services, and ambulatory services arrived at the scene as well. The Israeli Air Force’s Unit 669 and medical forces of the IDF’s Bekaa and Emekim Brigade took part in rescue efforts as well, according to the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.

The section of Highway 90 between Ein Gedi and the Metsoke Dragot checkpoint was temporarily closed to traffic due to the incident and was reopened in the afternoon.

The Nature and Parks Authority stated that a team from the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve was helping handle the landslide. United Hatzalah said it had dispatched its Psychotrauma and Crisis Response Unit (PCRU) to the scene to help. Two of the injured people were brought to Soroka Medical Center in a helicopter, while two others were being treated at the Safra Children’s Hospital at Sheba Medical Center. An Italian tourist injured in the incident was being treated at Hadassah Medical Center at Ein Kerem.

Lavi Bar David, 8, who was injured in the incident, told Israeli media “Not far from the waterfall, the rocks fell on us. My sister lost a toe, I was hit by a rock on the head and my sisters were also hit by some rocks.”

“When my sister said that she had been hit really hard on her finger, I took off my shirt and tied it in front of the wound. She is 5 years old. I know that when a wound opens, the blood must be stopped quickly, and we had nothing else.”

Lavi’s father, Yonatan, explained “I was the last in our family, there were several other families ahead of us. At this point all my children passed me and moved forward. Rocks the size of vehicles fell down. It was a fraction of a second, there was nothing to do in this incident. I’m a bit guilty of not being able to catch one of the children. We rescued everyone we could next to us, especially the family, and gathered them. I got out without a scratch and I was sure the children were buried there.”

“My three older daughters suffered minor injuries. The older daughter called the police first, I told her ‘take the cell phone and call’. We realized that there were quite a few people and I told her to tell them to bring a rescue helicopter. I took my little daughter who was hit in the head in my arms, I prayed and we ran to the entrance to the reserve.”

MDA paramedic Lior Shasha and medic Majhad al-Amor stated “This is a complex area, we arrived quickly at the scene as we left the ambulances in the parking lot of the stream and went down with the medical equipment by walking about 25 minutes to the scene of the incident. We noticed a number of injured people who were injured by a landslide a 5-year-old boy was unconscious and suffered a severe stomach injury, a 40-year-old woman and a 12-year-old girl were fully conscious and also suffered injuries.”

“Together with the rescue unit and medical forces of the IDF, we gave the child medical treatment and performed prolonged resuscitation operations. The woman and the girl were described as being in light to moderate condition. Four more injured people arrived at the stream’s parking lot, including a man about 20 years old, a man about 40 years old, a girl about four years old, and a boy about eight years old who was injured by the stones. The condition of the girl who was injured in the head and limbs was defined as moderate, the condition of the boy and the two men was light. After treatment in the field, we evacuated the injured by MDA helicopter and Air Force helicopters to the hospitals. In addition, we treated on the spot a number of anxiety victims who witnessed what happened.”

Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman was receiving updates from the Nature and Parks Authority and emergency services. Silman held a situation assessment once the rescue effort was completed.

On Thursday afternoon, a situation assessment was conducted at Nahal David by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel Police chief Kobi Shabtai, the commander of the police’s Southern District Amir Cohen, and representatives of the IDF, MDA, Nature and Parks Authority, Fire and Rescue Services, and other rescue services.

“I arrived at the scene of the disaster in Nahal David – an area where tens of thousands of people travel each year,” said Ben-Gvir. “I was sorry to hear about the sweet child we lost. I send my condolences, share in the family’s grief, and pray for the recovery of the injured. In assessing the situation on the ground, I received a comprehensive review from the commissioner and the district commander and other security officials, to observe closely and make sure that the event is indeed conducted in a good way and to prevent such disasters in the future – by reinforcing additional forces in the dangerous areas. I thank all the security and rescue agencies for their sacred work now and throughout the year in these areas.”

Shabtai stated that he “shares in the family’s grief and wishes a speedy recovery to the injured.”

“The decision of the district commander to declare a mass casualty incident was correct, because the situation was not clear at the beginning and every minute is important, therefore the rapid deployment of police forces, rescue services, the IDF, MDA, and all the bodies is critical. The place will be closed until a geological test that land experts will send to us. The next step will be a police investigation into the incident itself to see if it could have been prevented.”

Cohen stated that a full scan of the area will be conducted from the ground and from the air to ensure that everyone in the area was found and is safe and an orderly investigation will be conducted into the incident.

Later on Thursday, the spokesperson of the Jordan Valley Regional Council released a statement expressing their shared sorrow with Yehuda’s family.

“The members of the council, the pedagogical teams, and the local emergency response teams are all mobilized to support and accompany the family and the residents of the settlement,” the statement said.

What is Nahal David?

Nahal David is part of the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve next to the Dead Sea. The site includes a waterfall and a stream, as well as a hiking path that goes up to Mount Yishai. The park will remain closed until geological examinations are conducted, the Nature and Parks Authority announced on Thursday. Police urged hikers to avoid the hiking trails in the Nahal David area until further notice.

Brig.-Gen. (res.) Ariel Hayman, geologist and senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), explained that “The edge of the Dead Sea is an area prone to rock collapses, as has happened in the past in many cases, such as the Neot HaKikar disaster in 1970, in which 19 soldiers and a civilian were killed, and 10 were injured.”

“We still do not know what exactly happened today, but one of the reasons for the landslides in the area, as well as the sinkholes, is the rapid retreat of the Dead Sea, at a rate of about a meter or more per year. This retreat results, among other things, in the rapid undermining of the streams going down to the Dead Sea and the creation of cliffs that are prone to collapse.”

Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report

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