Firefighter Killed in Car Crash Near Karmiel Identified as Safety Officer

Two people, identified as 53-year-old Sarur Amer from Horfeish and 17-year-old Rayan Assad from Kisra, died in a road accident on Highway 854 near Karmiel on Saturday. Amer served as the head of the occupational safety and training department at the national headquarters of the Israel Fire and Rescue Services. Firefighters at the scene discovered that one of the trapped individuals was a fellow firefighter, a colleague known to them.

"Despite the difficult and shocking moment, the teams acted professionally and sensitively, making every effort to extract him quickly and transfer him to medical personnel," said Reshef Talie Murad, the incident commander from the Fire Services. Another man was seriously injured in the crash.

In separate fatal incidents on Saturday, a 93-year-old man was killed at the Ra'anana junction, and a foreign worker died in a hit-and-run accident in Eshkol. The driver in the Eshkol incident fled the scene and has not yet been apprehended. Police are investigating both incidents.

According to the National Road Safety Authority, nearly 300 people have died in road accidents in Israel this year. While this figure is about 5% lower than the same period last year, experts warn that the trend of improvement seen earlier in the year is diminishing. At the current rate, they predict that 2026 could see a similar number of fatalities to 2025, which recorded 459 deaths, the highest in over two decades.