JERUSALEM, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Flash flood in southern Israel has so far killed a total of 10 Israeli teenagers, as the the body of a missing student was discovered on Friday morning.
Israel authorities confirmed the deaths of the other nine victims on Thursday evening.
The 10 students were among a group of 25 students on a hike organized by Bnei Zion pre-military academy. They went hiking in the Tzafit wadi when the flood occurred.
Search and rescue teams, police and helicopters scrambled on Thursday afternoon to locate the group of teenagers and rescued 15, two of whom were lightly injured.
Police questioned three staff members from the Tel Aviv-based institution that organized the trip. Two of the staff members remain under arrest, while a third one is under house arrest.
One of the two arrested is the academy Principal Yuval Cohen, who was charged over causing deaths by negligence of the teenagers who were killed during the trip, despite the hazardous weather warnings.
The funerals of the 10 students were held on Friday in their respective hometowns.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote on Twitter Thursday evening that "the State of Israel mourns the promising young lives that were cut short by this tragedy in the Arava."
