Israel's deadliest school trips: Nahal Tzafit, Beit Shemesh

A heavy mourning descended on the Jewish people today (Monday) with the news from the north: a 15-year-old boy was killed and some 19 others wounded, three of them seriously and another ten lightly to moderately, in an explosion during an annual school trip.

As we reported, the blast occurred this afternoon, after 3:00 p.m., in open ground near Kibbutz Neot Mordechai in the Upper Galilee, during an annual trip for middle-school and high-school students.

An Education Ministry official said the trip had been approved by the ministry and that between 45 and 48 students and a small number of staff took part. In the first hours after the incident, chaos and panic reigned among parents, who flooded the staff with calls and messages trying to understand what had happened to their children. Among the older students, too, there was initial uncertainty about the condition of their friends.

The Education Ministry said in response: "This is an extremely difficult incident, and our thoughts are with the victims and their families. The Education Ministry is working together with the security forces and all professional bodies to provide support to the students, the educational staff and the families. We ask that people act responsibly and refrain from spreading unverified information, while the details of the incident are still being clarified."

Sadly, the Jewish people have long experience with school trips that ended in heavy disaster, events that shook the country and led to changes in various systems. We have returned to the most remembered.

Nahal Tzafit at the time of the disaster (Photo: Hadas Parush, Flash90)

2018: The Nahal Tzafit disaster

The Nahal Tzafit disaster is one of the most severe and remembered hiking tragedies in the history of the State of Israel, a symbol of catastrophic command failure and a reckless culture of "it'll be fine."

The group, which numbered 25 students from the "Bnei Tzion" pre-army academy and candidates for study there, set out on a bonding trip in the south of the country. The trip was originally planned for Nahal Tze'elim, but due to weather conditions and warnings of flash floods in the area, the decision was made to change the route to Nahal Tzafit in the Arava.

At midday, while the group was walking through the narrow (canyon) section of the wadi, the area was hit by an unusually intense rain event, a cloudburst that reached some 50 millimeters in a short time. The rains created a deadly flash flood that burst with tremendous force into the narrow canyon. The students had no escape route, and they were swept away in the current. Ten teenagers were killed in the disaster (nine girls and one boy) and others were wounded.

Those killed in the disaster were: Ella Or, Tzur Alfi, Gali Balali, Maayan Barhum, Ilan Bar Shalom, Romi Cohen, Agam Levy, Yael Sadan, Shani Shamir and Adi Ra'anan z"l.

2023: The bus overturning near Beit Shemesh

The severe accident occurred between Yom Kippur and Sukkos. A bus carrying some 50 children and teenagers (ages 10 to 16), youth-group members and counselors returning from a trip to Har Eitan lost control, broke through the safety barrier and overturned onto its side into a ditch at the Eshta'ol junction (Route 38 / Route 395).

Some 50 passengers were wounded in varying degrees of severity. One child was critically injured (suffering multi-system trauma, evacuated sedated and ventilated), three were moderately wounded, and the rest were lightly to moderately hurt.

The children who were on the bus described difficult moments of pressure and hysteria. One of the children said that already during the journey, some of the passengers were worried about the speed of travel. At the moment of the overturning, the bus windows shattered, and some of the children flew from their seats and fell out through the windows into the wadi. Large firefighting forces from the Beit Shemesh station searched the complex scene to make sure no one was trapped under the bus body.

Disturbing figures

According to Education Ministry data published at the end of 2025, between 2022 and 2025 some 1,238 different accidents and incidents were reported, in some of which several students were injured. Some of the cases were truly life-threatening: nine cases of a security incident, another case of a group of students entering an IDF firing zone, and another case of drowning; six cases of fire, 11 cases of falling from a height, 12 cases of burns.

The most common incidents are general injury: 372 cases of students who fell or were hurt, 323 cases of students who felt unwell, vomited or suffered pain, 253 cases of students who suffered a sprain or fracture. In 59 cases the students simply lost consciousness. In addition, 44 cases involved bites, stings or bites, 46 cases of dehydration or heatstroke.

Trips are supposed to end by nightfall to avoid a situation where students get lost, but in 23 cases there was "entry into darkness," in ten more cases there was a loss of direction by teachers and students, and in 15 cases there were missing students. In 22 cases there were road accidents in which students were injured and another 13 cases of evacuation of hikers.

A bleeding history

Looking back in history, the annual school trips have over the years known a history of disasters and accidents that claimed the lives of students.

In June 1985, 19 students and three adults from the Brenner School in Petach Tikva, who were on their way to an annual trip, were killed when a train struck their bus near Moshav HaBonim. The train driver was later acquitted of blame in court, and commissions of inquiry were established that examined the issue of signage at railway-road crossings.

In 2001, Safi Pikervitz, 12, was killed after a eucalyptus branch collapsed on him during a school trip in the mountainous Jordan. In 2009, Netanel Irani, 16, drowned during a swim in the pool at the Hamei Tiberias site as part of his school's annual trip.

In 2010, Avitar Avivi, 13, drowned during an annual trip in the Valley of Springs. The principal of the middle school where he studied, who was responsible for the trip, was put on trial for causing death by negligence following a prolonged struggle waged by the boy's parents, and was convicted. In March 2012, Yiftach Sapir, 17, was killed after falling from a height during an annual trip in the Arava.