2 men drown in seperate incidents, 5 killed this week
Man, 47, dies after boat capsizes, leaving him trapped beneath; 53-year-old also drowns after strong current pulls him into sea; both join long list of those killed by drowning this week, including 1.5-year-old baby
On Saturday, a 47-year-old man drowned after his kayak capsized and left him trapped beneath. The man remained trapped for 7 minutes and was then rescued by MDA paramedics who resuscitated him and evacuated him to the Ziv Medical Center in Safed. He died en route to the hospital. The man was traveling with his family in the Jordan River near the community of Beit Hillel.
A 53-year-old Ashkelon man drowned Friday night near the city's National Park, thus bringing the number of drowning deaths this week nationwide to five.
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The man, who was at the beach with his friends and wife, entered the sea at approximately 8:30 pm and disappeared. Ashkelon Police, the coast guard, lifesavers and volunteers conducted extensive searches for more than two hours and eventually found the man's body on the beach some 500 meters from his point of entry.
The man, who entered the water after lifesaving services for the beach had already concluded, was apparently washed away from shore as a result of strong sea currents.
"He was in the water when his friends noticed he was unable to return to land, they entered the water but failed to reach him," a man who had witnessed the attempted rescue operation said.
"They current almost pulled them away as well, but a man not connected to the group entered and assisted them," he added.
According to Ravit Martinz, one of the MDA paramedics involved "we received a call informing us that three people have were pulled into the sea by a strong current and that a fourth man assisted in rescuing two of them." According to her, the condition of the two was light and they were mostly suffering from exhaustion.
In the meanwhile, rescue services began searching for their 53-year-old friend, with the police calling in a helicopter to assist; two police boats and jet skis were also involved.
After the body was found, it was transferred to Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon for identification.
Four in a week
The former of the two incidents is the fourth drowning incident resulting in death registered in Israel in less than a week.
On Sunday, a 60-year-olf man also drowned to death not far from Jaffa's port. At the time MDA paramedics attempted to resuscitate the man, but were eventually forced to pronounce him dead.
A day afterwards, on Monday, the body of a missing 18-year-old from Haifa was found. The boy had gone swimming on Sunday but failed to return, prompting extensive searches which were conducted until late Sunday night. Only when the search teams began anew on Monday morning was the boy's body found and pulled out of the water not far from Kfar Galim.
On Wednesday, a 1.5-year-old baby drowned to death in a residential pool in Bat Yam. Apparently the child entered the pool with his five brothers and sisters, and they pulled him out of the water after noticing he had drowned.
MDA paramedics sent a team to the scene and instructed the mother how to perform CPR on the child. When they arrived, they continued the resuscitation attempts but were forced to declare him dead.
Maor Buchnik contributed to this report
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