Posted on 08/21/19
| News Source: Matzav
On Tuesday night, United Hatzalah’s Dispatch and Command center received an urgent call regarding a father and his three children who were lost in Nachal Sorek. The phone call came in from a “kosher” phone that does not have GPS tracking availability. According to the person who made the call the family members had gotten lost while on a bicycle trip through the wadi.
The trail winds around the wadi which is located in the Lachish region. Due to the family being lost for a lengthy period of time, the caller told the dispatch that they had run out of water and food.
The dispatcher immediately notified the closest responders all along the trail and the police. A united rescue operation was immediately undertaken. Volunteers from United Hatzalah together with volunteers from the Etzion and Yehuda Search and Rescue Units and police officers began searching through the large area that contains forests and wadis spread across a mountainous region. Rescue workers utilized bicycles, ATVs, jeeps, ambucycles and volunteers on foot to search for the missing family members.
After four hours of searching, the father and his three children were found, thankfully they were all in good condition. They were given food and water and received a full medical checkup by United Hatzalah volunteers in the field.
Chapter Head of the Mevaseret Region Ofir Ben Yitzchak took the father, his children, and the bicycles, in one of the organization’s ATVs back to the beginning of the trail, from there the family packed up their car and drove home.
Eli Almoznino who heads United Hatzalah’s Search and Rescue Department spoke about the success of the operation: “We are very happy that the family was rescued and are all healthy. It is a great feeling to have a successful operation such as this. For our volunteers and our organization, these search and rescue operations are exactly like all of our other lifesaving work. I am grateful to the police and to the Etzion and Yehuda Search and Rescue Unit for their continued cooperation whenever these searches are necessary. Inter-Organizational Cooperation helps ensure success in these instances.”