Blast on school hike near Lebanon border kills teenager, injures 24
A piece of unexploded ordnance blew up during a school hike in northern Israel. Initial findings suggest a student found the device and put it in his backpack.
Symbolic image · Photo: ישראל פרקר / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.5 (cropped and resized)
A teenager was killed on Monday when unexploded ordnance blew up during a school hike near the Lebanese border in northern Israel. According to the Magen David Adom rescue service, 24 students and adults were injured, two teenagers seriously and ten people moderately. The group was on the Ramim Ridge in the Upper Galilee; the injured were taken to hospitals in Safed, Nahariya and Haifa.
The army said the ordnance was likely a Hezbollah cluster munition left in the area. According to initial findings reported by the Times of Israel, a student is believed to have found the submunition and put it in his backpack; it exploded several minutes later. During the recent war, Hezbollah fired Grad rockets carrying such submunitions at northern Israel, and they often fail to explode on impact.
Police Commissioner Danny Levy said the hike had been approved by the authorities and that hikes in the area would be restricted for several days. A Jewish National Fund sign nearby, however, warned hikers not to enter forested areas because of "war damage". Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cancelled his plans and visited injured students in hospital with Education Minister Yoav Kisch. The investigation is continuing.