Israelis to join Nepal avalanche rescue efforts
With reports saying up to four Israelis among at least 17 people killed in deadly avalanche in Nepal, Israeli rescue teams and mountain climbers to join efforts to find over 100 missing trekkers.
Israelis will join rescue efforts in Nepal's Himalayas after a snowstorm and avalanche killed at least 17 trekkers and guides – reportedly including two Israelis - on a popular hiking route, while more than 100 others remain out of contact, officials said Wednesday. Meanwhile, The Foreign Ministry has confirmed the death of one Israeli in the deadly avalanche.
There were conflicting reports regarding the number of dead and missing, but Foreign Ministry officials have confirmed that one Israeli was killed in Nepal, but say there are others feared dead, wounded or trapped; while local reports said there were up to four Israelis killed.
Avi Sneha, a Nepali-Israeli, is currently in a makeshift command center set up by the Nepalese army to facilitate search efforts, said a number of wounded people were taken to the camp – Israelis among them.
"The army and rescue services are constantly brining the injured here from the mountain and I have seen a number of (dead) bodies, some local and some tourists," he told Ynet.
"As the sun sets in the area, it becomes more and more difficult and complex to continue searching. The weather is still very rough, but in Katmando things are getting better.
"When the sun rises tomorrow we'll join rescue forces and give any help that we can," Sneha said.
Severe weather triggered by the tail end of Cyclone Hudhud, which battered neighboring India's east coast, hit groups of trekkers and guides on the Annapurna circuit in central Nepal on Tuesday.
As the weather cleared on Wednesday in the remote Mustang and Manang districts, rescuers, trudging through waist-deep snow, found 22 stranded trekkers, an official said, including four Israeli trekkers trapped in the snowfall.
But some 168 foreign tourists were registered to hike in the districts, and authorities were now trying to track them down, an official said.
Nadav Ben Yehuda - the Israeli mountain climber famous for rescuing a stranded Turkish climber instead of finishing his own climb to the top of the Everest, a move which would have made him the youngest Israeli to do so – will also join search efforts after the Israeli embassy requested his assistances to help find the stranded Israelis.
His father, Yoram, told Ynet that "we spoke in the morning hours and he was about to board a helicopter to to join the search efforts."
"Nadav traveled to help Israelis who got stuck there and then he will continue to the Annapurna Mountain to help rescue operations. The scale and scope of what is happening there is still not really known, but there are a lot of wounded and missing," he said.
According to AFP, twelve bodies, those of two Israelis, a Pole, a Vietnamese and eight Nepalese trekkers and guides, were discovered buried in the snow in Mustang, said police official Ganesh Rai who is heading the rescue effort.
"There has been heavy snowfall in the area, up to three feet (91 centimetres)," Rai said.
"We have found twelve bodies in Mustang, including four foreigners, two from Israel, one from Poland and one from Vietnam," Rai told AFP, correcting his earlier information that two of those killed were Polish.
The death toll was likely to rise as rescuers struggle through snow and rough terrain to help dozens who remained stranded, the officials said.
Reuters, AFP and Roi Kais contributed to this report
