An Israeli woman was killed in a traffic accident in Panama, officials said on Wednesday.
Four other Israelis who were traveling with her in a tourist minibus were taken to a local hospital with various injuries.
A police officer speaks from the scene of a traffic accident in La Chorrera, Panama, where an Israeli woman was killed and four other Israelis were injured
(Video: National Police of Panama)
Reports from Panama said the crash occurred around 5:30 a.m. local time, when the tourists’ minibus struck the rear of a bus that was picking up and dropping off passengers at a stop in La Chorrera.
Baruch Neidam, director of the international division of ZAKA, an Israeli volunteer emergency response and recovery organization, said the group was working with the Foreign Ministry to return the woman’s body to Israel for burial and to fly the injured Israelis to Israel for treatment.
“We are working together with the Foreign Ministry to bring the deceased to Israel as soon as possible for burial and a funeral, and to fly the injured for treatment in Israel,” Neidam said.
The accident comes after several recent incidents involving Israeli travelers abroad.
Last week, the body of 23-year-old Tevel Shabtai, an Israeli woman from Modiin, was found in Japan after she disappeared while hiking in Hokkaido in the country’s north. Shabtai had been traveling alone as part of an extended trip and had entered the hiking trail after using a cable car and registering properly at the entrance to the nature reserve.
Weather conditions in the area were especially difficult, with temperatures ranging from 32 degrees Fahrenheit to 23 degrees Fahrenheit, along with snow and winds that significantly hampered search efforts.
In March, 12-year-old Tamar Haberfeld of Haifa was killed in France when a bus rolled down a slope at a ski resort in the Savoie region of the French Alps. Fourteen other Israeli tourists were on the bus, which was traveling from their hotel to the airport. Tamar had been on the trip with her father and her twin sister, Hadas, who was also injured.