Scene of flood disaster near Dead Sea
Scene of flood disaster near Dead SeaHadas Parush/Flash90

A student who took part in the fateful hike that ended in disaster Thursday in southern Israel warned a friend a day before the hike, predicting that the group would be wiped out in a flood.

On Thursday afternoon, a group of 25 teenage students from the Bnei Tzion pre-army preparatory academy in Tel Aviv were hit by a flash flood while hiking in Nahal Tzafit, just west of the Dead Sea.

The flood waters drowned nine of the 25 students and injured two more. One student remains missing.

Just a day before the tragic incident, two of the teenage girls who took part in the hike expressed their concerns about going on the trip, given the stormy weather.

“Everything is yellow,” one student wrote to her friend regarding the weather in a series of text messages first revealed by Channel 2.

“Oh my goodness. Yeah, a really disgusting yellow. I can’t believe that I’m really ready to go out hiking in this kind of weather.”

“It makes no sense for us to go out [hiking] in a place that is totally flooded. It’s like tempting fate. Seriously, we’re going to die.”

Following the disaster, Israel Police told Reshet Bet they had repeatedly warned against travelling in the area.

"The group of youths went on a trip to Nahal Tzafit despite our repeated warnings not to travel in the southern valleys," police spokeswoman Meirav Lapidot said.

"It's a terrible tragedy and it's easy to avoid such disasters. All you have to do is listen to instructions," she added. "We are issuing many warnings all the time, and it is unfortunate that we have reached this situation."