A rare storm battered Israel during the past two days, leaving more than a dozen dead and many others injured. The severest incident occurred in Israel’s southern Negev Desert, not far from the Dead Sea, where a flash flood swept away a group of teenagers that were on a school trip. The teenagers, from a pre-military academy school in Tel Aviv, were on a two-day bonding trip to the southern Israeli Zafit Stream in the HaArava region, when a flash flood swept away ten out of a group of 25. Search and rescue teams, police and IDF helicopters scrambled to locate the group of teenagers as heavy rainfalls drenched the region, pulling from the treacherous streams ten teenagers, and rescuing 15 others. Heavy rains flooded roads across other parts of the country, stranding cars and causing heavy traffic. In some places people reported seeing hail as big as ping pong balls. Up to 150 millimeters of rain fell between Thursday evening and Friday morning alone.