The Israeli woman killed Wednesday in a road accident in Panama has been identified as Noa Yitzhak, 22, from Ma’ale Adumim.
Yitzhak worked as a dance teacher at a modern dance school she managed. She served in the IDF as a fitness instructor in the Golani Brigade’s 12th Battalion and was discharged in December 2023. In recent months, she had been traveling in South America, including Argentina, Peru and Ecuador.
Ma’ale Adumim Mayor Guy Yifrach said Yitzhak was the daughter of Yael and Doron Yitzhak, “a devoted and beloved municipal employee.”
“The difficult news shook us all,” Yifrach said. “Since the night hours, I have been in contact with the Foreign Ministry and consular services, and I am working to bring Noa, of blessed memory, for burial in Israel, at her home in Ma’ale Adumim. All our hearts are with the Yitzhak family in this unbearably difficult hour.”
The accident occurred around 5:30 a.m. local time Wednesday, when a tourist minibus crashed into the back of a bus that was picking up and dropping off passengers at a stop in La Chorrera. Five other Israelis on the minibus were taken to a hospital in Panama City with various injuries. One was seriously hurt and the others were lightly injured.
Baruch Nidam, director of ZAKA’s international division, said the organization was working with the Foreign Ministry to bring Yitzhak’s body to Israel for burial and fly the injured Israelis to Israel for treatment.
Yitzhak’s death follows two other recent incidents involving Israelis abroad.
Last week, the body of Tevel Shabtai, a 23-year-old Israeli from Modi’in, was found in Japan after she disappeared during a trip in Hokkaido in northern Japan. In March, 12-year-old Tamar Haberfeld of Haifa was killed in France when a bus carrying Israeli tourists rolled down a slope at a ski resort in the Savoie region of the Alps.