The family of Israeli author Michal Peleg, 65, who had been missing in recent days in Crete, announced Tuesday that her body was found in the open sea, several days after she left her home for a walk.
Her family believes she slipped and fell from a cliff into the water. Peleg had planned to fly to Israel on Tuesday, and everything in her home indicated she was preparing for her return.
She had baked cookies, laid out a puzzle she intended to finish, and left a window open for ventilation. The house she had rented in Crete, where she had been staying in recent months to work on a new book, was left intact and orderly: her passport, wallet and personal computer were all in place.
Peleg, who had been living in the village of Kámbos in eastern Crete, was last seen the previous Wednesday. A search had been underway since Saturday, after all contact with her was lost. Her nephew, Eli Rapoport, who is in Crete coordinating the family’s efforts, had been expecting to pick her up at Ben-Gurion Airport on Tuesday.
“Michal was much more than an aunt to me. I was lucky to have an aunt like Michal, who cared for me and my brother as if we were her own children,” Rapoport said. “I was supposed to pick her up at the airport, but instead, we searched for her here, along the path leading from the village to the sea—where her footprints were last seen. After six days of her disappearance and four days into the search, evidence was found in the open sea. Sadly, we identified Michal’s body.”
The search efforts involved the Harel insurance company and staff from Israel’s Foreign Ministry, who coordinated with Interpol. Also participating were Israeli Consul in Greece Danny Sivan, staff from the Israeli Embassy, local police, Magen David Adom volunteers, Israelis living on the island, residents and members of the Friends Rescuers community, operating under the Gvanim nonprofit organization.
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Peleg was born in Haifa and lived between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. She traveled extensively, spent periods living in Italy and worked as a local correspondent for various Israeli newspapers. She wrote books based on her experiences in places such as Ethiopia, Cuba, Berlin, and the Caucasus.
Her family said she was “known as a warm, curious, and beloved person who formed close connections wherever she lived—including in Crete, where she spent the past few months.”