42 children were reported missing on Monday during a school trip in Nahal Og near the Dead Sea. All were located and are in good condition, rescue forces announced at 8:30 p.m.
At 9:00 p.m. police reported that 18 children had been rescued, 21 were located by a drone and rescue forces were making their way to them on foot, and three others were located and made contact with a search helicopter.
By 11:00 p.m. all of the children were safely back with the rescuers and given food and blankets.
The children, between the 5th and 8th grade, were first reported lost at around 7:00 p.m. on Monday evening.
Volunteers in the Israel Police's Megilot Dead Sea Rescue Unit and other units arrived in the area and began to investigate.
Drones were initially only able to find part of the children but eventually managed to locate all of them.
"Some 42 children were disconnected from the group and went off in direct directions," Matan Morad, a member of the rescue team, explained soon after the search began. "We do not have the exact number of children or their names yet. I hope that there will be a happy ending," he said.
On April 26, 2018, ten youths, nine girls and a boy from a pre-military academy, were killed after they were carried off by a surge in the Tzafit stream west of the southern part of the Dead Sea amid intense storms.