Newsletter
Newsletter Support JNS

El Al flight attendant dies four months after contracting measles

Blood tests showed that Rotem Amitai, 43, had received only one of two required vaccination shots against the highly contagious disease, of which there have been nearly 4,300 cases in Israel this year.

Rotem Amitai. Credit: Courtesy.
Rotem Amitai. Credit: Courtesy.

Israeli flight attendant Rotem Amitai, 43, died on Tuesday after contracting measles in late March, becoming the third fatality in an outbreak of the highly contagious disease in the country this year.

Amitai’s health deteriorated and was transferred to the Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba in April, and then to the intensive care unit after suffering brain damage and falling into a coma. She then was transferred to Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikvah, where she died.

There have been approximately 4,300 cases of measles reported in Israel in the past year.

Amitai, a mother of three, was vaccinated against the disease, but only received one of two required shots, according to reports.

El AL moved to immediately make sure all of its aircrew are vaccinated.

“For 20 years prior, secretly, I was learning Torah, I was learning the Bible, the biblical understanding of history, and I wanted to go to a place where I can live and also play,” the NBA legend said of his time playing in Israel.
Some see the transfer of law enforcement from the IDF to the police as a step toward greater Israeli governance, while a legal expert says it would bring greater normalcy to Israeli life in Judea and Samaria but not advance sovereignty.
Israeli forces killed a senior commander in Hezbollah’s Badr Unit in Southern Lebanon following the group’s attack on three soldiers within the Security Zone.
Israel’s U.N. envoy says the inquiry shows that anti-Israel hostility is “not organic” and warns of foreign efforts to sow division.