The Nachal Dovid spring in the Ein Gedi nature reserve near the Dead Sea is one of the most frequented sites in Israel. On Thursday morning, the site was full of families spending their last days together before the start of the school year, when suddenly a deadly rockslide occurred – an unprecedented occurrence in the area, at least in past decades.

Eight-year-old Yehudah Levi, z’l, was killed, his mother and sister were lightly injured, and seven other hikers were lightly to moderately injured.

Among the wounded were the children of the Bar-David family. Levi Bar-David, 8, spoke to the press from Soroka Hospital about how he saved his younger sister’s life.

“We were close to the end of the route and we reached a waterfall and suddenly an avalanche of rocks fell on us,” he said. “My sister lost a toe, I was hit by a rock on my head and my sisters were also hit by some rocks. When my five-year-old sister told me that she was hit really hard on her toe, I took off my shirt and tied it in front of the wound. I know that when a wound is open you need to stop the blood quickly and we had nothing else.”

Levi’s father, Yonatan, was hiking with five of his children in the stream. “When the rockslide occurred, all my children had passed me and I was behind them,” he said. “Rocks the size of cars fell down. It happened in a split second without any warning. The rocks hit the ground and there was a huge cloud of dust – you couldn’t see anything. I feel a little guilty for not being able to grab my daughter before she was hurt but I believe her injuries will heal. We’re people of emunah so we thank Hashem for protecting us.”

“My three older daughters suffered minor injuries. My older daughter called the rescue forces first. I told her ‘Pick up 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 youngest daughter, who was hit in the head and foot, in my arms – I said a tefillah and ran to the entrance of the nature reserve.”

Deputy Commander of the Negev Police Region Eyal Azoulai, said: “This incident is very unusual and has resulted in a severe outcome. We are concentrating our efforts on trying to understand whether the incident could have been prevented. We have issued a notice to close the Nachal Dovid and Nachal Ergot channels. Entry will be forbidden until we can be sure the area is safe. If we come to the realization that there is negligence on the part of any party, we will open an investigation. As we understand now, this was a natural phenomenon with very serious consequences.”

Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman requested the establishment of a committee to carry out an inquiry into the disaster.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)