Israel Police and volunteer rescue units are searching for people and vehicles reported lost or trapped in flooded areas of the Negev and Arava as heavy rainfall has created dangerous conditions on Election Day.Rescue teams conducted ground and air searches to locate the missing individuals and vehicles.In Beersheba, parking lots and shopping malls flooded, and residents reported that several traffic lights stopped functioning.Israel Police and volunteer rescue units are searching for people and vehicles reported lost in flooded areas of the Negev and Arava on October 27, 2026. (CREDIT: Israel Police Spokesperson's Office)Power outages caused by the weather also disrupted voting in Meitar, causing a polling station to be temporarily closed.
Roads closed due to flooding, flash flood riskFlooding and the risk of flash floods closed multiple roads in southern Israel and the Dead Sea area, including all roads leading to and from Eilat, according to Ynet. Police closed Route 90 due to the severe weather. Yoni Stern, a resident of Neot HaKikar, where residents have been stranded in their vehicles due to closures, told Ynet, "Many Arava residents, myself included, are stuck on the road and cannot exercise our right to vote.
We're getting no response from the Central Elections Committee or the police. I'm stuck at Arava Junction and need to get to my polling station. They need to extend voting hours or reopen the road."Near Eilat, Ynet reported 17 millimeters of rainfall fell in just three hours on Tuesday. Other parts of the Arava also saw heavy rainfall, with Neot Smadar receiving nearly a quarter of its annual rainfall in one afternoon, the report added.
The Jerusalem Post reports a search for people and vehicles trapped by floods in the Negev and Arava on Election Day, with closed roads, power cuts and a shut polling station. It gives striking rainfall figures, including nearly a quarter of Neot Smadar's annual rain in one afternoon, but never tells the reader that a warming climate makes heavy rainfall like this more frequent and more intense.
Leaves out the climate link
Serious
“Neot Smadar receiving nearly a quarter of its annual rainfall in one afternoon”
Why this matters
The words "nearly a quarter of its annual rainfall in one afternoon" present an extreme downpour as a striking one-off weather fact.
The impression it gives
A reader comes away thinking this was simply a freak storm, with nothing to connect it to a wider trend.
The context
Human-caused warming has made heavy rainfall events more frequent and more severe (R2). The article never mentions climate change or warming anywhere, though it reports rescues, flooded roads and stranded residents.
How we know
On the recordThat warming has made hot extremes, heavy rainfall, agricultural and ecological drought, fire weather and intense tropical cyclones more frequent or more severe.ipcc.ch (opens in a new tab)
Checked against the whole articleIt never uses the words “climate” and “warming”.
The opening sentence names the heavy rainfall as the cause of the danger and stops there.
The impression it gives
A reader is told the floods were dangerous but is given only the weather as the explanation, with no sense that such deluges are becoming worse.
The context
The article goes on to report all roads to Eilat closed and "17 millimeters of rainfall fell in just three hours", yet never adds that warming is loading the dice for this kind of extreme rainfall (R2).
How we know
On the recordThat warming has made hot extremes, heavy rainfall, agricultural and ecological drought, fire weather and intense tropical cyclones more frequent or more severe.ipcc.ch (opens in a new tab)
Elsewhere in the article“17 millimeters of rainfall fell in just three hours”
Neot Smadar received nearly a quarter of its annual rainfall in one afternoon. Climate change is making heavy rainfall events like this more frequent and more intense.