Israel: arrests after ten teenagers drown in flash flood

Two school employees have been arrested, and a third place under house arrest, after ten Israeli high-school students drowned during a hike.

Nine girls and one boy, most of them aged 17 or 18, were swept away to their deaths yesterday when flash floods engulfed Nahal Tzafit, a riverbed canyon in the Arava region, south of the Dead Sea.

The victims were part of a group of 25 students who had been accepted to the Bnei Zion pre-military academy in Tel Aviv for the coming year, and were on a hike organised by the school, The Times of Israel reports.

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The group was unable to escape the narrow canyon, hedged in by steep rock walls, when the floods hit.

Emergency services rescued 15 students, two of whom suffered minor injuries, but were unable to save the others.

“Authorities had issued warnings to avoid the area because of the risk of flash floods following two days of heavy rain,” says the BBC.

Haaretz reports that one of the girls who died on the ill-fated trip messaged friends the night before to share her misgivings.

“I can’t believe I’m actually going hiking in weather like this,” she wrote. “It doesn’t make sense to go to a place that’s completely flooded. It’s tempting fate. We’re going to die - I’m serious.”

The academy’s principal is reportedly one of two staff members who have been detained on suspicion of death by negligence. The third suspect is also believed to work at the school.

According to the Israel National News website, an email sent by a staff member to a concerned student before the hike said: “Do not worry. We are well prepared for the trip and will coordinate with the appropriate bodies. It will be a wet and fun experience.”

As the dead students were named today, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said that the entire state “grieves for the promising young lives that were cut off by the grave disaster in the Arava”.