A winter storm lashed Israel with high winds and heavy rains overnight and into Tuesday morning, killing a woman and injuring several people, leaving others missing or in need of rescue, collapsing structures, and flooding roads.
The woman, in the Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem, was critically injured, apparently by a heavy object, as her home flooded, the Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency service said.
She was brought to a nearby security checkpoint, where MDA medics called to the scene found her unconscious. They rushed the woman to Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center while working to resuscitate her, but she was later declared dead.
In the afternoon, emergency services and search and rescue teams were searching for a teenager thought to have been swept away by the Nahal Modi’im stream in the West Bank, north of Jerusalem, during a heavy rainstorm.
Another teen was initially caught up in the water along with him, but managed to escape, according to initial reports in Hebrew news outlets.
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Separately, three people were trapped on the roof of their car, which was caught in floodwaters in Nahal Anava in the central region of the country. Emergency services brought them to safety without injury.
In Abu Ghosh, on the outskirts of Jerusalem, a man and woman were rescued from a car that was nearly covered by floodwaters. The woman fainted due to hypothermia and was taken to the hospital.
הצפות הבוקר התרחשו גם במנהרת נעמי שמר בירושלים. כל לאחר מעל 50 מ”מ מתחילת המערכת ועדיין הגשם לא מפסיק. pic.twitter.com/7xub3pfPPz
— שלמה ⛈️ מזג אוויר (@MezgAvirIL) January 13, 2026
The storm began during the night with winds of up to 100 kilometers per hour (62 mph) along the coast. In the capital, gusts reached 65 kph (40 mph).
Flights out of Haifa airport were canceled due to the conditions.
Heavy downpours accompanied the winds, with 60 millimeters (2.4 inches) falling in Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights. Jerusalem was drenched with 41 millimeters (1.6 inches), Haifa saw 27 millimeters (1 inch), and Tel Aviv 22 millimeters (0.9 inches).
The Naomi Shemer Tunnel, which passes under Mount Scopus from Jerusalem to Ma’ale Adumim, was closed due to flooding.
Flooding also prompted police to close part of the north-south Route 90 in the area of Ein Gedi and the Dead Sea hotel resorts.
In Rishon Lezion, part of a wall around an abandoned winery collapsed, damaging cars that were parked next to it. At least eight cars were damaged, and some were destroyed, Channel 12 reported.
“When I saw it, my heart dropped,” the owner of one of the cars told the network. “The whole front was smashed, with large stones on it. It is lucky that it is only metalwork and not people.”
חלק מחומה של יקב בראשון לציון קרס בשל הרוחות העזות, הלילה
צילום: דוברות עיריית ראשון לציון pic.twitter.com/S32AMCErFW
— הארץ חדשות (@haaretznewsvid) January 13, 2026
“Fortunately, there was no disaster,” Rishon Lezion Mayor Raz Kinstlich said in a statement, calling it “nothing other than a big miracle” that there were no injuries.
Elsewhere in the city, a falling branch injured a woman, 54, lightly in her leg.
In Ramat Gan, a man, 28, was lightly hurt on the head by a falling tree. And in Glilot, a woman, 47, was lightly hurt on the head by a flying object blown by the wind.
MDA received reports of other fallen trees in Or Yehuda, Petah Tikva, Tel Aviv and Ramat Gan, but there were no injuries.
In the northern coastal city of Nahariya, part of a restaurant collapsed without causing injuries.
In the far north, Mount Hermon was blanketed in 15 centimeters (6 inches) of snow, and the ski resort at the site will only open to visitors on Thursday. Snow mixed with rain was also reported in the Gush Etzion region of the West Bank, south of Jerusalem.
The storm was forecast to continue, though rain was expected to lessen by the evening. Temperatures in Jerusalem for the day were forecast to be 4°-9° Celsius (39.2°-48.2° Fahrenheit), in Tel Aviv 12°-18° C (53.6°F to 64.4°F), and in Haifa 10°-15° C (50° to 59°F).
The storm is predicted to pass by Thursday.
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