Search team finds body of missing Israeli hiker in Nepal
Discovery of Michal Gili Charkesky's body brings to 40 the death toll in terrible storms that struck area last week; four Israelis among the dead.
Israeli and Nepalese search and rescue teams on Monday found the body of an Israeli woman missing in the Himalayas since last week's freak storm that claimed the lives of 40 people.
Michal Gili Charkesky, 36, had been trekking in the same mountain range where her 23-year-old boyfriend Noam Hevlin had died in an avalanche in 2001.
Michal's family have been informed of the discovery. The Foreign Ministry said Monday that Israeli embassy in Kathmandu is making arrangements to have her body repatriated.
"Army rescuers dug out the body of an Israeli tourist from snow today," Baburam Bhandari, chief of Nepal's Mustang district, one of the worst hit, told Reuters on Monday.
The search for Charkesky began hours after the storms hit last Tuesday. Three other Israelis were killed in the blizzard, and at least 12 more were injured.
"Today is the last day of the search and rescue operation," Keshav Pandey of the Trekking Agencies' Association of Nepal said Monday. "After this we can only hope that those who are missing will establish contact with us or their families.
"We don't think that any tourist is missing now. I am getting reports that some local porters and tour guides who were on the trek have not been traced so far," said Pandey, whose team has rescued more than 250 people.
The dead include Canadian, Indian, Israeli, Japanese, Nepalese, Polish and Slovak trekkers. Survivors said many people perished trying to descend in freezing whiteout conditions from the highest pass of the 240-km (150-mile) trail around Annapurna, which offers dramatic views of crags and hamlets.
Reuters contributed to this report
