Last update - 00:00 13/01/2008
Two people die of exposure as cold front sweeps through Israel
By Roni Singer-Heruti, Mijal Grinberg, and Yigal Hai, Haaretz Correspondents
At least two people died of hypothermia last weekend after an unseasonable cold front swept through the country.
One victim, a 76-year-old woman from Be'er Sheva died after she was taken to Soroka Hospital in critical condition. Her temperature was at a reported 77 degrees Fahrenheit when she was taken to the hospital and attempts to revive her failed.
In Holon, a 40-year-old man was found dead outside the entrance of a public bomb shelter. Paramedics who arrived at the scene ruled the most likely cause of death was hypothermia.
Due to the recent wave of cold that has taken over the country, the Tel Aviv municipality on Monday began referring all of the city's homeless to two shelters run in conjunction with private organizations.
Director of the city's Social Services Administration, Ze'ev Friedman, said that the city had prepared in advance for the cold spell by increasing capacity in two of its shelters in order to be able to accommodate the local homeless population.
"We went around the city and offered all homeless the chance to come to the shelters, where we have increased capacity, but not everyone agreed to come," said Friedman.
"In cases like this, the default is to supply those same homeless with blankets, clothes and warm drinks, and that's what we've been doing," Friedman added. "Our teams will continue to scour the streets and offer homeless the chance to move to the shelters."
Friedman said the municipality has also organized a project distributing heating devices to some 3,600 senior citizens around the city.
Also this weekend, a 10-year-old boy from Moshav Taoz near Jerusalem was hospitalized with light hypothermia after he turned blue while playing on the cold floor of his home