An 84-year-old man died Sunday afternoon after falling from height while constructing a sukkah at his home in Efrat, a community in the Gush Etzion region south of Jerusalem. The incident occurred around 1:40 p.m. on Matityahu Street in the Hazayit neighborhood.
Paramedics from Magen David Adom, Israel's national emergency medical service, were called to the scene but could only pronounce the man dead. He had fallen from his balcony during preparations for the Sukkot holiday, which begins later this week.
Volunteers from ZAKA, the Israeli organization that handles recovery and identification at disaster scenes, arrived to treat the deceased with respect according to Jewish law and to collect evidence. Teams from the Gush Etzion district, along with volunteers from Efrat and nearby Beitar Illit, participated in the operation. Following their work, the body was released for burial on ZAKA's recommendation.
Eyal Ehrenstam, commander of ZAKA's Gush Etzion district, Yossi Holtzman, deputy district commander, and Shlomo Ben Dahan, a ZAKA volunteer from the Efrat team, described the incident: "This is a difficult event. The deceased fell from height when he came to build a sukkah on his balcony. MDA teams were forced to confirm his death at the scene. Together with additional volunteers, we operated at the site treating the deceased with dignity and collecting evidence."
