Man, 41, falls to his death while hiking in the Judean Desert

A 41-year-old man was killed on Tuesday while hiking with friends in Nahal Og in the Judean Desert after he slipped and fell from a height of some 50 meters (164 feet).

The accident took place at approximately 3 p.m. The Judea and Samaria Police's Megillot search and rescue unit received a report that a man had fallen in the upper part of Nahal Og. The report said the man had slipped while following a narrow trail with a group of friends.


Credit: Judea Samaria Police / Megillot search and rescue unit

Nitai Reich of the Megillot unit discussed the incident: "While we were training on the Nabi Moussa Bridge over Nahal Og, we got a report of a hiker who had fallen 50 meters into the stream. We packed up immediately and made our way toward the stream."

It took the volunteers some 45 minutes to reach the man. Meanwhile, a helicopter from the IDF's 669 search and rescue unit was scrambled to the scene to assist in the rescue, which was complicated by the fact that the hiker had fallen in a location that is unreachable by foot.

"When we got to the scene, we could make out the hiker. A doctor from 669 declared him dead, and his body was lifted onto the army helicopter," Reich explained.

"For about the next three hours, we rescued the other 13 people from his group, who were badly traumatized. This is a very hard path and we needed to help them [using] ropes. They told us that they had been hiking along a marked trail and at some point, where the path became very narrow, he slipped," Reich continued.

The army helicopter transferred the hiker's body to a Magen David Adom ambulance. Police arrived on the scene and began investigating the circumstances of the accident, taking statements from the friends the man had been hiking with. The man, whose name has not yet been released, is reported to be a Jerusalem resident and a student at Bar-Ilan University. His family, who live in Raanana, was notified of his death on Tuesday night.

Tuesday was a busy day for the Megillot volunteers. In Wadi Qelt in the Judean Desert, two female hikers had to be rescued. One woman broke her leg during a hike and had to be carried out on a stretcher. She was taken to Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital in Jerusalem for treatment. The second woman, a diabetic, had to be rescued because she was not carrying insulin. She was lifted out in an army helicopter and transferred to a hospital.

On Monday night, the Megillot unit was called in to rescue five hikers stuck in Nahal Tur. After five hours of intense rappelling work that lasted until 3 a.m., all five were safely extracted.