A woman was killed Sunday morning and six people were injured in a four-vehicle chain-reaction crash on Highway 2 near Atlit, south of Haifa, emergency services said.
Magen David Adom paramedics pronounced the woman dead at the scene. Six other people were taken to Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera, including a man in his 60s who was seriously injured. The five other casualties were listed in mild condition.
Woman killed, 6 injured in northern Israel four-car pileup
(Video: MDA)
Police said they had opened an investigation into the circumstances of the crash. “Police officers and traffic accident investigators from the Coastal District are at the scene examining the circumstances,” police said.
MDA paramedic Netanel Menachem and EMT Linoy Azulay said one of the vehicles had been almost completely destroyed while another had overturned onto its side.
“One of the vehicles was completely crushed, another had overturned onto its side, and the remaining vehicles had body damage,” they said. “A woman about 50 years old was trapped inside the crushed vehicle. She was unconscious, with no pulse and not breathing, and had suffered extremely severe injuries. We carried out medical examinations, but unfortunately her injuries were critical and we had no choice but to pronounce her dead.”
They said the man in his 60s was trapped inside the overturned vehicle but remained conscious.
“While rescue crews worked to free him, we provided life-saving medical treatment. After he was extricated, we evacuated him to the hospital in serious condition,” they said.
The woman was the fifth person killed in road accidents in Israel within 24 hours.
Two people, Sarur Amer, 53, from Hurfeish, and Rian Assad, 17, from Kisra, were killed Saturday in a serious crash near Karmiel. Another man was seriously injured.
In two other fatal crashes on Saturday, a 93-year-old man was killed near the Ra’anana Junction, while a foreign worker was killed in a hit-and-run crash in the Eshkol region of southern Israel.
Nearly 300 people have been killed on Israel’s roads since the beginning of 2026, according to the National Road Safety Authority.
Although the number of fatalities remains about 5% lower than during the same period last year, road safety experts warn that improvements recorded earlier in the year are steadily being eroded.
At the current pace, they say, 2026 could end with a death toll similar to that of 2025, when 459 people were killed on Israel’s roads, the highest annual figure in more than two decades.