The body of missing Israeli hiker 22-year-old Or Ashraf has been found in a “complicated” area on Mount Everest.
Search and rescue workers have been looking for the IDF veteran for more than a week. His friends lost contact after the deadliest earthquake in more than 80 years struck Nepal nine days ago.
Ashraf was last seen alive just before setting out alone on a trail in Langtang, about an hour before the earthquake hit.
His father arrived in the area with some of the veteran’s buddies from the elite IDF Egoz combat unit to help search for him. Some of his belongings were found earlier in the day on Sunday, shortly before rescue workers located the body.
Due to its location, they said it is likely they will retrieve it tomorrow (Monday).
Ashraf’s father had vowed over the weekend that he would not leave Nepal without first locating his son. Israel’s foreign ministry, search and rescue teams and other officials have been using the Kathmandu Chabad House as a base of operations.
The Jewish center operated by Chabad-Lubavitch co-emissaries Rabbi Chezky Lifshitz and his wife Chani has been transformed into a crisis center where some 2,000 meals a day are being served to Nepalese refugees and stranded Israelis as they are being rescued by helicopter teams around the area.
It is at the Kathmandu Chabad House, with its high-tech equipment, that arrangements will likely be made for the retrieval of Ashraf’s body and its return to Israel.