Body of missing hiker Hila Livne found in Kyrgyzstan before Yom Kippur

A Facebook group dedicated to finding Hila said she loved nature and traveling, noting that she had visited Australia and New Zealand and hiked the Israeli Trail.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
Updated: OCTOBER 1, 2017 15:36
Hila Livne (photo credit: FACEBOOK)
Hila Livne
(photo credit: FACEBOOK)
The body of missing Israeli trekker, Hila Livne, 22, was found in Kyrgyzstan on Friday, six days after she fell to her death while hiking.
Her friends and family had turned to Facebook to help raise money for the search and were posting updates. In one of the photographs, Livne is seen at the bottom of a mountain range holding up a sign wishing everyone a good new year.
According to the Facebook page “Bringing Hila Livne home,” the young woman had been released from the IDF half-a-year ago and was on her post army trek.
“Before her army service, Hila volunteered for a year of service with children in Jerusalem after two years as a scouts guide in the Israeli Scouts,” the Facebook page said.
It also said Hila loved nature and traveling, noting that she had visited Australia and New Zealand and hiked the Israeli Trail.
Her twin brother, Yuval, had gone to Kyrgyzstan to join the search, which also included a local and Israeli delegation.
On Friday afternoon, he had posted on Facebook that he was praying for her safe return.
He later posted a note from the family that said: “With pain and sorrow, we want to announce that our Hila is no longer among the living. We want to recognize the national effort to give us strength and hold our hands at a time that was difficult and terrifying for us. Now, we are parting. We will forever remember her smile. It was a smile that started with the eyes,” the family said.
According to Ynet, Livne had been with an Israeli and two French trekkers in the Sari-Chalak nature reserve on Saturday, but was separated from them when the Israeli hurt his foot and fell. The two French hikers stopped to tend to him. Livne fell off the cliff where they were, and her body was found in a gorge below.
A rescue crew from the Clal Insurance participated in the search, as did Kyrgyzstan rescue forces.
The Foreign Ministry thanked “the military, police and rescue forces in Kyrgyzstan, as well as representatives of the German and US embassies there, for their support and assistance in their extensive search to find Hila.”
It added that its consul in Kazakhstan, Ariel Braverman, and the Department for Israelis Abroad in the Foreign Ministry’s Consular Department are handling the transfer of Livne’s body to Israel.
The process could take several days, it said.


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Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan