Massive Rescue Operation Underway for Man Lost at Sea Off Ashdod
He entered the water Friday night at an unguarded beach with no lifeguard service. His friend made it out. Seventy-two hours later, police, navy divers, drones, and sonar are still searching.
Rescue teams in Ashdod entered their third straight day Sunday searching for a young man who vanished beneath the waves at Mei Ami Beach on Friday evening, with no trace of him found despite one of the most intensive coastal search operations the city has seen. Police, navy fighters, firefighters, professional divers, and volunteers have worked without pause through Shabbat and into the new week, operating from the sea, land, and air simultaneously.
The incident unfolded Friday evening when two young men arrived at Mei Ami Beach and entered the sea at a stretch of coastline that carries no official designation as a swimming beach and had no active lifeguard service at the time. Both got into serious difficulty in the water. One managed to fight his way back to shore and was evacuated in mild condition to Ashdod's Assuta public hospital. The other disappeared. Rescue services were alerted and have been searching continuously ever since.
What is being deployed
The operation is coordinated from a dedicated field command post established at the scene, bringing together officers from the Lachish district police, the maritime police unit, Ashdod municipal security forces, Israeli Navy fighters, and rescue personnel from the Lahava elite rescue unit of Israel's Fire and Rescue service. Lahava teams have been conducting systematic sweeps of the waterline and surrounding areas since Saturday morning.
The search relies on an array of advanced technology: professional divers working in shifts below the surface, police and navy vessels combing the water, drones flying continuous passes over the coastline, and sonar systems scanning the seabed. Authorities say the primary fear is drowning and that they are pursuing every available lead.
Authorities renew warnings
Israel Police and Fire and Rescue officials confirmed Sunday that searches will continue for as long as necessary with every means at their disposal. They used the occasion to renew urgent public warnings: swimmers must use only designated, supervised beaches during active lifeguard hours, and must not enter the water at unguarded locations or in dangerous sea conditions. Officials said both men entered the sea at a spot explicitly not cleared for swimming, and that the absence of lifeguard services left no safety net when conditions turned deadly.
No further details about the missing man have been released by authorities. The search is ongoing.