Last update - 00:00 29/07/2007
French tourist dies of sunstroke as heat wave claims third victim
By Mijal Grinberg and Eli Ashkenazi, Haaretz Correspondents
A French tourist visiting Israel died of hyperthermia on Sunday, bringing the total of fatalities caused by a cross-country heatwave to three since last week.
The 50-year-old was hiking with a tour group by the David River in the Judean Desert, where temperatures reached 42 degrees Celsius (108 degrees Fahrenheit.)
The group arrived at the desert oasis of Ein Gedi in the morning hours when the overweight man lost consciousness.
Medics that arrived at the scene lifted him onto a helicopter that whisked him away to Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva where he was diagnosed with heat stroke.
Physicians battled for hours to save his life before he was pronounced dead in the evening.
Ein Gedi Rescue Team head, Manu Barak, emphasized the importance of drinking water on visits to the area and adapting hike trails to correspond to the physical condition of hikers.
On Friday, A teenager from central Israel died of dehydration during a hike in the Galilee.
15-year-old Menachem Shapira died while on a trip with six of his friends in Amud Stream.
At a certain point during the hike, Shapira's friends called an emergency evacuation team to treat him, after he had complained that he was feeling ill. The rescuers tried to resuscitate Shapira at the scene and then evacuated him to Ziv Hospital in Safed, where he was pronounced dead.
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, having mapped out a route that included climbing a mountain. The temperature in the desert was 47 degrees Celsius.
Upon returning from the climb, no water could be found in the area. Miller ran ahead to find water and was later found dead by a rescue team.