Bet Shean residents Eliran Effergan Z”L and Shimon Peretz Z”L, both 23, were killed within hours of one another, sending shockwaves to a large community in Bet Shean that knew both boys.

Effergan was R”L killed during the predawn hours on Friday morning in a vehicular accident as he made his way home. For reasons that are still a mystery, the vehicle flipped over near Kibbutz Nir Dovid in the Bet Shean Valley. A passenger seated next to Effergan was lightly injured. He was pronounced dead on the scene.

Chagit Peretz, Shimon’s mother stated “we attended Eliran’s levaya and we never though in our worst nightmare that a number of hours later, we would be facing the same fate, hearing of the death of our son Shimon.”

Shimon, who was employed in a spice factory in nearby Kibbutz S’dei Eliyahu was R”L crushed when a spice crushing machine activated as he was inside cleaning it. Police and labor officials are investigating, reporting a number of months ago; another worker was seriously injured in a similar accident.

Mayor Jackie Levy stated “it is difficult to digest such tragedy, especially one after the other in a city as small as Bet Shean where we are all family.”

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)