Ami Popper, who is serving several life sentences for the 1990 murder of seven Palestinians, was moderately injured in a road accident Wednesday night while driving on the Arava Road. Popper's wife and son were killed in the accident and his other son was moderately injured.

Three other people were injured, two of them seriously.

Popper, who was on furlough from prison, veered from the lane in which he was driving, crossing a no-pass line, and crashed head-on into an oncoming car at the entrance to Kibbutz Grufit, about 45 km north of Eilat.

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Emergency services that arrived at the scene rescued several people trapped in the wreckage and attended to the injured. A helicopter evacuated the two seriously injured passengers to Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva, and the three additional injured people were evacuated by ambulance to Yoseftal Medical Center in Eilat.

Traffic police have opened an investigation into the causes of the accident. Popper's driver's license is said to not have been renewed since he began serving his sentence 16 years ago.

Following the accident, the Arava Road was blocked in both directions at the segment between Kibbutz Yotvata and Kibbutz Grufit.

Popper was sentenced to seven life terms after being convicted of killing seven Palestinian workers from Gaza who were waiting to begin work in Rishon Letzion in 1990, but his sentence was subsequently commuted to 40 years.