Yonatan Klimian is the victim of the Keshet Cave disaster: "Died on a hike he loved"

It has been cleared for publication that Yonatan (Toni) Ephraim Klimian, 16, from Katzrin, is the teenager who died on Sunday in the disaster at Keshet Cave in the Western Galilee. The late Klimian was a student at the Yeshiva High School in Hispin. The yeshiva mourned him this evening, shocked and pained by his untimely passing. The Katzrin Local Council shared in the heavy grief of the Klimian family, noting that Yonatan died during a hike he loved and in the land he loved.

Earlier today, numerous rescue forces were summoned to Keshet Cave in the Adamit area following a report of a teenager who fell from a height of about 35 meters during a rappelling activity. Yonatan was at the site with his family members when the fatal fall occurred, leaving him unconscious in a complex and difficult-to-access terrain. Due to the depth of the fall and the teenager's isolated location in the heart of the cave, the rescue forces who arrived first at the scene were unable to provide immediate treatment and were required to use special, complex means for extraction.

Fighters from the 669 airborne rescue unit and volunteers from the police rescue units were scrambled to the scene, working in challenging conditions in an attempt to reach the teenager. Magen David Adom (MDA) paramedics, Maimon Gabay and Ligal Dror, stated that they had to descend to the scene themselves using rappelling, where they found Yonatan suffering from extremely severe injuries and without a pulse or breathing. The teams performed advanced resuscitation efforts and prolonged medical treatment during the rescue attempts, but at their conclusion, they were forced to pronounce his death at the scene. The forces worked for some time longer to remove the body of the late Yonatan from the complex terrain and transfer it to his family.