The Israel Fire and Rescue Authority said a preliminary investigation indicated that one of the students had put the munition in his bag, where it later exploded. Arutz Sheva reported that the student spotted the device during a break, picked it up and stowed it shortly before the blast. Investigators have not yet established what triggered the detonation.
The IDF is also checking whether the munition was fired by Hezbollah or left behind by Israeli forces, and whether the trip had the required military authorization. The area had served as a staging ground for Israeli troops and had also been hit by Hezbollah fire.
Magen David Adom, Israel's national emergency medical service, said two boys aged about 14 were seriously hurt, ten people were moderately injured and 12 teenagers were lightly injured. Ynet reported three seriously injured and one moderately injured, and said the response included 14 ambulances, three Israeli Air Force helicopters, the IDF's Unit 669 search-and-rescue force and bomb disposal specialists from the Yahalom combat engineering unit.
Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa admitted three teenagers and one adult to its trauma unit. Ziv Medical Center in Tzfas was treating 14 casualties. Galilee Medical Center was treating six, one of whom was seriously hurt.
Dvir Klein, whose son Itay suffered a leg wound, said his son called first and the family talked him through applying a tourniquet to himself. "The boys showed amazing responsibility," Klein said.
David Radko, an MDA emergency medical technician who reached the scene first by motorcycle, described students tending to one another along the trail. "Some even applied tourniquets to their friends to stop the bleeding," he said. Paramedic Osama Masoud said his team worked alongside a military medical unit to resuscitate an unconscious boy. "We were forced to pronounce him dead," Masoud said.
