The

Neot HaKikar Neot HaKikar () is a moshav in the northern Arava valley in southern Israel, established in 1970. Located in the south of the Dead Sea, at an elevation of ''below'' sea level, it falls under the jurisdiction of Tamar Regional Council The Tamar ...

disaster (Hebrew: אסון נאות הכיכר), which occurred on 30 December 1970, was one of the worst

natural disasters A natural disaster is the very harmful impact on a society or community brought by natural phenomenon or Hazard#Natural hazard, hazard. Some examples of natural hazards include avalanches, droughts, earthquakes, floods, heat waves, landslides ...

in the history of the

State of Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. Heavy rains caused rocks to detach from an overhanging cliff, crushing the

dining room A dining room is a room for consuming food. In modern times it is usually next to the kitchen for convenience in serving, though in medieval times it was often on an entirely different floor level. Historically the dining room is furnished with ...

in an

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...

base. 19 soldiers and one civilian were killed and ten soldiers were injured (three of them severely).

The accident and rescue operations

On Wednesday, 30 December 1970, at 12:15, part of a 12-meter-high cliff suddenly detached and hit an IDF military base kitchen. Soon afterwards, the whole cliff detached and crushed the base dining room while the soldiers were having lunch. The soldiers who were outside the dining room quickly called for assistance, and in less than an hour the first

Israeli Air Force The Israeli Air Force (IAF; , commonly known as , ''Kheil HaAvir'', "Air Corps") operates as the aerial and space warfare branch of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). It was founded on May 28, 1948, shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Indep ...

helicopter landed at base with a medical team. The base was covered in rocks which were on average three meters high and about five meters wide, preventing the immediate evacuation of the dead and wounded, who were buried underneath 1,500 tons of rock and soil. Removing the rocks was only possible with heavy mechanical equipment. Initially, the heavy mechanical equipment arrived from the nearby

Dead Sea Works The Dead Sea Works (, ''Mif'alei Yam HaMelakh'') is an Israeli potash plant in Sdom, on the Dead Sea coast of Israel. History Under the British administration, concessions from the Mandatory government were given. On January 1, 1930, the "Con ...

potash Potash ( ) includes various mined and manufactured salts that contain potassium in water- soluble form.

plant, and later heavy mechanical equipment was also sent from the

Combat Engineering Corps The Israeli Combat Engineering Corps (, ''Heil HaHandasa HaKravit'') is part of the Israel Defense Forces with responsibility for mobility assurance, road breaching, defense and fortifications, counter-mobility of enemy forces, construction and ...

. The rescue operations continued uninterrupted into the night, during which floodlights and torches were used to allow the work to continue. During the rescue work, Defense Minister

Moshe Dayan Moshe Dayan (; May 20, 1915 – October 16, 1981) was an Israeli military leader and politician. As commander of the Jerusalem front in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Chief of General Staff (Israel), Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defe ...

, IDF Chief of Staff

Haim Bar-Lev Haim "Kidoni" Bar-Lev (; 16 November 1924 – 7 May 1994) was a military officer during Israel's pre-state and early statehood eras and later a government minister. Biography Born Haim Brotzlewsky in Vienna and raised in Zagreb, Bar-Lev made al ...

, and Southern Command chief

Ariel Sharon Ariel Sharon ( ; also known by his diminutive Arik, ; 26 February 192811 January 2014) was an Israeli general and politician who served as the prime minister of Israel from March 2001 until April 2006. Born in Kfar Malal in Mandatory Palestin ...

visited the scene. By midnight, all of the injured and dead had been recovered.

References

{{coord missing, Israel Israel Defense Forces disasters Natural disasters in Israel 1970 in Israel 1970 natural disasters 1970 disasters in Israel