Last update - 00:00 27/07/2007
15-year-old dies of dehydration while hiking in Galilee in hot weather
By Eli Ashkenazi, Haaretz Correspondet
A teenager from central Israel died of dehydration on Friday during a hike in the Galilee.
The 15-year-old came to the area on a trip with some friends. At a certain point during the hike, the boy began to feel ill and an emergency evacuation team was summoned. The rescuers tried to resuscitate the boy at the scene and then evacuated him to Ziv Hospital in Safed.
The teen was pronounced dead after he arrived at the Hospital.
Dr. Amar Hussein, the director of the emergency room at Ziv Hospital, urged Israeli citizens on Friday to refrain from hiking in the unusually hot weather because of the serious danger of dehydration.
An emergency evacuation team was also called to examine a baby whose family was hiking in the same Galilee stream. The baby's parents reported that their infant child was apparently dehydrated.
On Thursday, a Yeshiva student also died of dehydration while hiking in the Judea desert.
Zvi Miller, 20, set out with his friends on a hike Wednesday, on the first day of summer break from the Jerusalem yeshiva he attended. The six friends apparently mapped out a route that included climbing a mountain. The temperature in the desert was 47 degrees Celsius.
According to a rescuer, the yeshiva students couldn't find water containers when they came down from the mountain. They had run out of water by that time. Miller ran toward the parking lot in search of water, but lost his way. When Miller's friends arrived at the parking lot and their friend wasn't there, they called an emergency medical team and an evacuation team who set out in search of Miller in a helicopter.
Miller was found lying in the desert and his death was pronounced at the scene.