20 year old American girl dies after Fall at Masada

Scene of the accident at Masada

An American tourist was pronounced dead Tuesday after falling down an eight-meter drop during a hike up the "snake path" to Israel's ancient Masada fortress.

Magen David Adom (MDA) paramedics rushed to the scene and attempted to resuscitate the 20-year-old woman, who has not yet been named, but eventually pronounced her dead at the scene.

MDA paramedic Uri Tzahi was among the first to reach the scene of the accident.

"Beneath the cliff we saw a young woman of about 20 lying unconscious, not breathing and with no pulse, with multiple injuries and signs of heat-stroke," he recounted. 

Recalling his team's desperate efforts to revive her, he said that despite providing emergency first-aid treatment and performing CPR, they were eventually forced to declare her dead.

Elsewhere, some 50 tourists in Nahal Og, north of the Dead Sea, were treated for dehydration as this week's mega-heatwave continues.

15 of them were taken from the area and given first-aid treatment by MDA medics, while other first-responders were forced to remain on the trail with an additional four tourists and a tour guide who were suffering from severe exhaustion and unable to leave of their own strength.

Emergency rescue teams are currently heading to the site to extract them.

25 girls from the US were evacuated to Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital for further treatment.