Neot HaKikar disaster

Heavy rains caused rocks to detach from an overhanging cliff, crushing the dining room in an Israel Defense Forces base.

[1] 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 helicopter landed at base with a medical team.

Initially, the heavy mechanical equipment arrived from the nearby Dead Sea Works potash plant, and later heavy mechanical equipment was also sent from the Combat Engineering Corps.