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A 15-year-old was killed, and about 19 people were wounded Monday when an unexploded ordnance blew up during a high school field trip in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon, emergency services and Israeli media reported.
The students and teachers from the ORT Ma’alot religious high school were hiking near the Mitzpe Pe’er lookout in the Upper Galilee on the first day of a school trip along the Israel Trail, Ynet reported.
Three of the wounded were in serious condition.
The blast highlights the lingering danger of unexploded munitions in northern Israel after the fighting with Hezbollah, as authorities investigate whether the trip had proper approval and where the ordnance came from.
An initial investigation indicated the trip was at a site approved by security officials and the Education Ministry, and that one of the students may have picked up the ordnance from the ground before it exploded.
Investigators are also checking whether it was a cluster bomblet.
The Israeli military is examining whether the ordnance was left by Israeli army units or was a Hezbollah munition that had been fired but failed to explode. The area, very close to the border, had been used as a staging ground by Israeli units and had been targeted by Hezbollah.
The Israeli army is also investigating whether the trip received the required approvals. At all sites open to the public, the military is required to inspect and clear unexploded ordnance beforehand.
"I spoke with my son, he was apparently meters from the explosion," said Eliyahu, the father of one student. "It’s the school’s trip on the Israel Trail. They started it today. Suddenly they heard an explosion and he ran."
Ma’alot-Tarshiha Mayor Moti Ben David said: "There were no warnings, there was approval from the Education Ministry. It approved the trip with all the authorities as far as I know. There is concern about such incidents all the time; we are three years after a war with everything that means."
Magen David Adom regional director Itzik Shoshan said rescuers "immediately began providing medical treatment at the scene to eight wounded in serious and moderate condition and to other lightly wounded. This is a complex incident."
The military sent three air force helicopters, medics and bomb disposal teams from its Yahalom engineering unit to scan for other ordnance.
Police sealed off the area and urged the public to stay away and "report to police hotline 100 any unexploded ordnance or suspicious object."
"The Prime Minister asked to ensure that the injured are being evacuated as quickly as possible to hospitals and is continuing to hold ongoing assessments," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said.
Education Minister Yoav Kisch headed to the scene and to Ziv Hospital in Safed, where some of the wounded were taken.
"This is an extremely difficult incident, and our thoughts are with the injured and their families," the Education Ministry said, urging the public not to spread unverified information.
In August, six foreign workers were wounded in an unexploded ordnance blast near Metula.
"If a piece of ordnance did not explode, it’s much harder to locate, especially if it’s a very small bomblet," a security source told Haaretz, as the threat from unexploded ordnance persists.
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