Israeli among hundreds still missing in Nepal after catastrophic flood, death toll nears 300

One Israeli tourist visiting Nepal is missing after a wall of mud and rock collapsed into a Himalayan river, causing catastrophic flash floods, tourism officials said on Thursday.

In addition to this, at least 65 US citizens are missing, the Nepal tourism board said.

ZAKA is officially investigating the disappearance of one Israeli national, who has not responded to attempts at contact so far. Israel's Foreign Ministry released a statement on Thursday warning citizens to avoid traveling to the area due to the current natural disaster.

As many as 517 foreigners from 33 countries are among the 570 tourists missing in Nepal, officials added.

The tally of foreigners missing in Tibet's Gyirong county was 260, state broadcaster CCTV said, but nationality details were not immediately available.

At least 288 Indians missing after Nepal flood, Indian foreign ministry says

Neighboring India had the highest number of missing with 178, Nepal's tourism board said. However, shortly afterward, India's foreign ministry said that at least 288 Indian nationals are missing in Nepal and another 200 remain stranded in China.

The 288 missing included tourists and Indians working in Nepal, it said.

Nepal police say 270 bodies found after Himalayan flood, nearly 1,500 still missing

A total of 270 bodies have been found by authorities in Nepal after a torrential flood swept through the Himalayan border areas of the country and China's Tibet, Nepal's police said in a post on X on Thursday.

Nearly 1,500 people in total are missing across Nepal and China's Tibet, including tourists and locals, authorities also said on Thursday.

Climate change boosted risk of devastating Himalayan flood, experts say

Climate change is creating conditions that can destabilize high-mountain rock and ice, increasing the risk of disasters such as this week's Himalayan flood along the border between Nepal and China's Tibet, scientists say.

At least 800 foreigners are among the nearly 1,500 missing, authorities said on Thursday, a day after a massive wall of mud and rock collapsed into a Himalayan river, sending catastrophic floods through towns and valleys.

"Climate change is generating conditions that can destabilize high-mountain rock and ice," said Simon Cox, chief scientist at the Mountains to Sea program at Earth Sciences New Zealand.

That, in turn, makes collapses and cascading hazards like the seen this week more frequent, he added.

Exact cause of disaster still being analyzed

While scientists the still analyzing the exact cause of Wednesday's disaster, they say it probably began with a massive ice-rock avalanche on the northern slopes of Nepal's Langtang Lirung peak into the Lhende Khola river on the Tibetan side.

At least six major hydropower plants and infrastructure at the Gyirong Port trade hub were damaged in a multi-stage, cross-border hazard chain triggered by the initial collapse.

It also altered river channels more than 100 km (62 miles) downstream, near the Indian border.

While experts caution against describing climate change as the sole, immediate trigger for Wednesday's collapse, they say that rising temperatures and melting glaciers probably played a role in the disaster.

Warming can reduce ice support on steep slopes, boost meltwater, and change patterns of freezing, thawing, and rainfall, which can weaken mountainsides and make large collapses more likely in some spots, Cox added.