Body of Missing Israeli Hiker Or Asraf Found in Nepal
Missing Israeli hiker Or Asraf has been found dead in the remote Langtang area of Nepal.
The body was located Sunday morning, the Israeli ZAKA rescue and recovery organization announced.
The body likely will not be recovered until Monday, when the “complex extraction” will be attempted on a rocky mountainside, according to ZAKA.
Prior to finding his body, rescue workers found documents belonging to the Israeli man, 22.
Asraf had been traveling for several months since his release from service in the elite Egoz unit of the Israel Defense Forces. He had been traveling with members of his unit, but left for a hike on his own shortly before the devastating earthquake on April 25.
His father, Patrick, and several army comrades, had arrived in Kathmandu last week to join in the search. Patrick Asraf had vowed not to leave Nepal without finding his son.
He is the last Israeli to be accounted for following the natural disaster. Hundreds of Israelis were in the area at the time of the earthquake.
The death toll in the earthquake rose to over 7,000 on Sunday morning as three people were pulled alive from the rubble, including a 101-year-old man. Aftershocks from the 7.8 magnitude temblor continue to roil the area.
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO