March 29, 2015
Israeli and Jordanian sides of the Dead Sea. (Google Maps)
Israeli and Jordanian sides of the Dead Sea. (Google Maps)

Three accidental castaways from the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea floated to an Israeli resort over the weekend, after the inner tubes in which they were balanced swept westward to the opposite side of the world’s lowest lake. A Jordanian soldier had attempted to stop the children – a boy, 10, and a girl, 14 – who had been staying at a resort with their parents on the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea, but was carried away as well.

The harrowing 10-hour inner tube nightmare came to a happy end in the early hours of Saturday morning (March 28), when the trio washed up at the Biankini Resort on the Israeli side of the salty lake. The Israeli resort’s owner, who speaks Arabic, heard their story and set a rescue mission in order.

“We treated them, let them eat, drink and shower and invited an IDF medical officer to give them medical treatment. We also called the police,” Dina Dagan, manager of Biankini, told Ynet. “The kids remembered their parents’ telephone number and we called them. They said they’d thought they’d died.”

Dagan said the kids were refugees who’d left Iraq for Jordan two years ago.

“[The soldier] told them the whole way that they were arriving at an enemy state and was afraid they’d be shot, but in the end they said they want to remain here,” she told the Hebrew news site.

Dagan also said that the lights at her resort helped the trio navigate to shore.

Israeli security helped return the three accidental castaways to Jordan via the Allenby Bridge crossing on Saturday morning.

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