Eight killed in Car Crash at Yam Ha'Melech "An Entire Family Killed"

Eight people were killed and three more injured Tuesday afternoon in a traffic accident near the Dead Sea in southern Israel.

The parents were just identified as Yariv and Shoshi Atar from the West Bank settlement of Psagot. The children’s names were not immediately released for publication.

The accident occurred on Route 90 between the Ein Gedi park and the Dead Sea, when two vehicles crashed into each other in a head-on collision.

Of the eight people killed in the accident, six were children, and two were adults.

According to a report by MDA emergency services, aside from the eight fatalities, two others are in moderate condition, and a third was lightly injured. The two moderately injured victims are woman approximately 42 years of age, and a 12-year-old girl. The two suffered injuries to their heads and limbs, and were treated on the scene before being evacuated to Soroka Medical Center in Beer Sheva for treatment.

The third injured victim, a man in his 50s who is believed to be the driver, was lightly injured.

One of the two vehicles involved in the accident went up in flames, MDA said. At least five people, including three children, were trapped inside the burning vehicle. Fire and rescue teams recovered the victims from the vehicle.

“This was a terrible accident,” said senior MDA paramedic Sarah Yisraeli and MDA first-responder Amiram Muallem. “When we arrived on the scene, we spotted two vehicles on the road. One of them was burning while it was carrying passengers – it was a terrible sight.”

“Firefighters worked to extinguish the blaze and then began recovering the people who were trapped inside. There were three people in the second vehicle, including a woman about 52 years old and a girl roughly 12 years of age who were moderately injured. After giving them first aid treatment on the scene, we evacuated them on an MDA helicopter, which had landed nearby, to Soroka hospital to treat them for injuries to their heads and limbs.”

“The driver, a man in his 50s, was lightly injured, and was treated on the scene and evacuated by one of our ambulances to Soroka hospital.”