Two men in their 60s moderately hurt in Route 35 crash near Givati Junction

Two men aged about 60 were moderately injured and a third person was lightly hurt when two vehicles collided on Route 35 close to Givati Junction in southern Israel, according to Magen David Adom (MDA), the national emergency medical service. In a statement from its spokesperson's office, MDA said the call reached the 101 emergency line of its Lachish region at 20:19.

MDA said its medics and paramedics treated the injured at the scene and took all three to Barzilai hospital. The service described the two men as suffering head and limb injuries. The Israeli news channel N12 reported the same casualty figures in its news flash service, adding that the hospital is in Ashkelon. N12 credited the image accompanying its item to MDA's own operational footage.

What Magen David Adom does

Magen David Adom, whose name means "Red Star of David", is Israel's national ambulance and emergency medical organisation. It operates the 101 number that Israelis dial for a medical emergency, and its dispatchers send ambulances, medics and paramedics to incidents across the country. The organisation divides its work into regional command areas, and the Lachish region named in its statement is one of the areas covering the south.

MDA's spokesperson's office regularly publishes short updates on road accidents, giving the time the call was received, the location, the number of casualties, their condition and the hospital they were taken to. Those updates are often the first public account of a crash, and news outlets frequently pass them on within minutes, as N12 did here.

How MDA grades injuries

Israeli emergency services use a standard scale to describe casualties: light, moderate, serious and critical. A "moderate" classification generally means the patient needs hospital care but is not judged to be in immediate danger, while "light" covers less severe injuries. These are assessments made by medical teams at the scene or on the way to hospital, and a patient's condition can be reclassified after examination in the emergency department.

Where it happened

Route 35 is a highway in southern Israel, and Givati Junction is a crossroads on it in the area served by MDA's Lachish region. Barzilai, the hospital that received the injured, is the main medical centre in the coastal city of Ashkelon, which N12 identified as its location.

Where the reports differ

The two accounts agree on the core facts: two vehicles, Route 35 near Givati Junction, two men aged around 60 in moderate condition, one more person lightly hurt, and evacuation to Barzilai. There is one difference in detail. MDA's statement attributes the head and limb injuries specifically to the two men in moderate condition. N12's wording can be read as applying those injuries to all of the casualties it mentions. The MDA statement, as the primary source, is the more specific of the two on this point.

The reports also differ in tense. MDA wrote that its teams were treating the injured and taking them to hospital, describing work still under way, while N12, publishing shortly afterwards, described the treatment and evacuation as completed.

What the reports do not say

Neither report explains how the collision happened, what kinds of vehicles were involved, or who was driving them. They do not give the age or sex of the lightly injured person, or say whether the injured were in the same vehicle. There is no mention of police involvement, an investigation, road closures or traffic disruption on Route 35. Neither source gives any update on the condition of the injured after they reached Barzilai. All casualty details trace back to MDA, and N12's report appears to rely on the same information rather than on separate reporting from the scene.