Nepal avalanche claims life of Israel Air Force's first female religious combat navigator

Twenty-five-year-old Capt. Tamar Ariel, the first female religious navigator in the Israel Air Force, is one of the three Israelis to die in the avalanches caused by the Nepal blizzard this week, the Foreign Ministry said Thursday.Ariel hailed from the Masu’ot Yitzhak moshav, an agricultural community, in the south near Ashdod and Ashkelon. She had been trekking with a friend in the Annapurna section of the Himalayas, a route popular with backpackers in northern Nepal.

Ariel once told Channel 10 TV that she had never wanted to be a pilot or navigator when she was younger.“I never thought about a pilot training course, but I did want to serve in the military,” she said. “I would have continued serving in the military even if I wasn’t in a pilot training course. I see it as a career, not a short-term experience.”