Six Children Among Eight Killed In Accident

Six children were killed in a head-on collision near Ein Bokek, between the Dead Sea and Ein Gedi, as they were trapped inside their car engulfed in flames.

The two cars, traveling in opposite directions on Highway 90 on Tuesday, slammed head-on into one another, trapping a set of parents and six children inside their car as it arose in flames and injuring three others from the second car.

All eight from the car set ablaze were pronounced dead by local authorities on the scene by 2 p.m., and the three passengers in the other car— two parents and their 12-year-old child— were injured and evacuated to the hospital.

“This is a shocking accident; when we arrived at the site, we noticed two vehicles on the road, one of which was set on fire and full of passengers,” said Magen David Adom senior paramedic Sarah Israeli and MDA paramedic Amiram Mualem.

“A 52-year-old woman and a 12-year-old girl, who were moderately injured, after initial treatment, where we brought them to an MDA helicopter that landed nearby and evacuated them to Soroka Medical Center suffering from injuries to the head and limbs. Cal was treated and taken in our ambulance to Soroka Hospital.”

Shlomo Landau, who heads the ZAKA unit responsible for the Dead Sea, told Kan, Israel’s Public Broadcaster the scene reminded him of a terror attack. “It [was] hard to count the bodies in the back. It’s a sight that [reminds me of] terror attacks in Jerusalem, with the smell and everything.”

Assaf Levy, a firefighter from the Negev Region, told Army Radio about the scene: “This is one of the most serious accidents I have seen during my service. When we arrived the vehicle was a fireball; As soon as we began to control the flames, the disaster began unfold. I hope that there will be no more death.”