New testimony about the moments leading up to the tragedy during the ORT Ma'alot Yeshiva High School trip emerged Monday during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Rambam Hospital in Haifa.
A student injured in the explosion told Netanyahu that one of the students had been playing with a piece of unexploded ordnance found in the area and unscrewed part of it, an action that he said led to the deadly blast.
The Prime Minister arrived at the hospital together with Education Minister Yoav Kisch to visit those injured in the incident on the Ramim Ridge in the Upper Galilee and their families.
During the visit, Netanyahu spoke with Eitan Masauri, a 14-year-old student who sustained a shrapnel injury to his neck, and heard his account of the moments preceding the explosion and the injuries suffered by the students.
According to Masauri, the student who discovered the munition began playing with it and unscrewed part of it, after which the explosion occurred.
"Guys were thrown through the air, some fell into the bushes. There were two seconds of shock," Masauri described.
The student said that despite being injured himself, he tried to help one of his friends.
"I realized I was injured. I saw that a friend was hurt, and I tried to help him," he said.
Following the visit and the testimonies he heard, Netanyahu instructed the head of the IDF Home Front Command to reinforce public safety instructions and warnings regarding unexploded ordnance remaining in the field.
The Prime Minister requested that authorities emphasize the strict prohibition against touching unexploded ordnance, alongside conducting searches across extensive areas to locate additional munitions that could endanger civilians.
Education Minister Kisch announced that, following the tragedy, he had ordered a 48-hour suspension of school trips in the northern border and Golan Heights areas, with trips planned for those regions to be redirected to alternative routes.
According to Kisch, a preliminary examination found that the trip during which the tragedy occurred had been approved, the route had been inspected, and all required guidelines had been followed.
Kisch noted that the safety briefing ahead of the trip included a warning about unexploded ordnance.
"This will probably be with us for a long time to come," he added.
The explosion during the school trip killed a boy approximately 14 years old and injured 24 others, including two boys who were seriously injured, ten people who sustained moderate injuries, and 12 who were lightly injured.
The IDF believes that the munition that exploded was a cluster munition fired by Hezbollah toward the area during the war, which had remained on the ground without detonating.