Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

3 Rafters Go Missing On The Sea Of Galilee

(JTA) — Israeli authorities ramped up efforts to find three people who went missing while rafting on the Sea of Galilee.

Itamar Ohana, 19, Nahman Itah, 21, and a third unnamed 17-year-old went missing Wednesday in three separate incidents, the Times of Israel reported. Israeli authorities began the search Wednesday and continued overnight, and were joined Thursday by additional personnel and volunteers.

Some 80 people were rescued from the lake this week amid heavy winds.

Israel’s largest freshwater lake, the Sea of Galilee is popular with Israeli vacationers during this week’s Passover holiday, and authorities warned bathers about venturing from shore in inflatable dinghies.

“We call on the vacationing public on the shores of the Kinneret to listen to the instructions of the life-guard service and to refrain from entering the water on beaches that don’t have life guards,” the Israeli life guard service said in a statement, using the Hebrew name for the Sea of Galilee.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.