A four-year-old girl drowned on Yom Kippur at a mikveh – or ritual immersion pool – on Neufeld Street in Bnei Brak, in central Israel.
An initial investigation shows that the entrance gate to the mikveh had been left open, and the girl entered the mikveh with her two small brothers. A passerby extricated the girl from the water.
A Magen David Adom team evacuated the girl in critical condition to Schneider Children's Hospital, where her death was confirmed.
MDA teams were called up to take care of 2,556 events over the holiday. They took 1,973 people to hospitals. A total of 130 people fainted, mostly as a result of the heavy heat and the fact that so many people were fasting on Yom Kippur.
Sixteen people required resuscitation. Two hundred and seven children, many of whom were riding their bicycles on the nation's roads, were hurt and required first aid. One of these, a 9-year-old girl from Haifa, suffered head injuries and was evacuated in moderate to serious condition to Rambam Hospital in Haifa.
Nineteen people were slightly wounded in accidents.
MDA teams also evacuated 145 women in labor to the maternity wards.