A man was killed early Monday after colliding with a camel on Road 358 between the town of Lakia and Kibbutz Lahav in southern Israel.
First responders said the vehicle strayed about 40 meters from the road before flipping over with the driver inside. The driver was unconscious upon their arrival and sustained a multi-system injury, Magen David Adom said.
The man, 65, was pronounced dead by paramedics on the scene.
Police said they were investigating the circumstances that led to the accident and would take action to locate the owner of the camel, who may face criminal charges if located.
In 2018, the State of Israel passed a law that stipulates that camels are to be tagged with an under-the-skin digital ID chip, similar to dogs, and their owners held criminally responsible if their animals are involved in road accidents.
Get The Times of Israel’s Daily Edition
by email and never miss our top stories
By signing up, you agree to the terms
The Law for the Marking and Supervision of Animals obliges owners to list their camels on a registry, and to fulfill a number of criteria in keeping the desert livestock, in an attempt to cut traffic deaths and injuries caused by camels walking on roads in Israel’s south.
Sign warning drivers of camels on a Negev highway seen on August 26, 2007. (Rebecca Zeffert/Flash90)
But data released by the Agriculture Ministry a year later showed that Bedouin towns in the Negev in southern Israel, where stray camels are rampant, were not fully cooperating with the law, as camels continued to be involved in fatal car accidents in the area.
Former Arab Israeli lawmaker Abd al-Hakim Hajj Yahya said in 2019 that the law was “part of the war on Bedouin Arabs in the Negev.”
Other lawmakers have since noted that the problem could have been solved if the government had recognized the Negev’s 4,000 camels as grazing animals and allocated them grazing land.
Over the past decade, nearly 400 people have been injured in car accidents involving stray camels. Some 17 people have died and 60 have been seriously injured, according to data published by the Or Yarok Association for Safer Driving in Israel.
We’re telling a critical story
Israel is now a far more prominent player on the world stage than its size suggests. As The Times of Israel’s Diplomatic Correspondent, I’m well aware that Israel’s security, strategy and national interests are always scrutinized and have serious implications.
It takes balance, determination, and knowledge to accurately convey Israel’s story, and I come to work every day aiming to do so fully.
Financial support from readers like you allows me to travel to witness both war (I just returned from reporting in Ukraine) and the signing of historic agreements. And it enables The Times of Israel to remain the place readers across the globe turn to for accurate news about Israel’s relationship with the world.
If it’s important to you that independent, fact-based coverage of Israel’s role in the world exists and thrives, I urge you to support our work. Will you join The Times of Israel Community today?
Thank you,
Lazar BermanDiplomatic Correspondent
Yes, I’ll give
Yes, I’ll give
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
You’re a dedicated reader
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel ten years ago – to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREEas well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you,
David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
Join Our Community
Join Our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this