3 people drown off Israel's beaches

Body washed ashore in Rishon Lezion believed to be 22-year-old Ramla resident who has been missing since Thursday. Remains of 21-year-old man found on Tel Aviv beach; 45-year-old man drowns in Jaffa neighborhood

Eli Senyor |Last update: 07.24.09 , 20:57

A man's body was washed ashore in the central city of Rishon Lezion on Friday afternoon. Rescue forces believe it belongs to a 22-year-old Ramla resident, who has been missing since going for a swim Thursday evening.

A similar incident took place on Tel Aviv's Dolphinarium Beach, where the remains of a 21-year-old man were found. The body was transferred to the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute for identification.

On Friday evening, a 45-year-old man drowned off a beach in Jaffa's Ajami neighborhood. The man had gone for a swim with his wife and was swept away by the heavy waves.

Other bathers managed to pull the man out of the water and alerted an MDA crew, which began resuscitating him but was eventually forced to declare him dead.

'Heavy waves made it impossible'

A friend of the young Ramla man managed to rescue himself on Thursday evening after beginning to drown and alerted the police. Municipal inspectors, volunteer divers and a police helicopter, together with the young man's family members, searched for him throughout the night.

In the early afternoon hours, the divers spotted a body. The young man's family members identified their loved one and took the body to be buried.

Shoham resident Eli Ben-Moshe was the first to notice the incident. "I was walking with my children on the Rishon Lezion beach at around 7 pm, when I suddenly saw a young man in the water calling me to help him get out," he told Ynet. "He was exhausted. After I rescued him, he told me that his friend was in the deep water and that couldn't locate him.

"In the meantime, the guy I took out of the water was completely dazed," Ben-Moshe added. "He said he was from Ramla. I gave him a cellular phone and he called their friends, who were sitting in a restaurant not far away. They arrived immediately and tried to go into the water to look for the missing guy, but quickly realized that it was impossible because of the heavy waves."