A 49-year-old man died Thursday at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba from injuries sustained in an explosion at Intel's manufacturing facility in Kiryat Gat a day earlier, raising the death toll to two. The blast also killed a gas technician and left a third worker, a man in his 20s, in serious condition, sedated and on a ventilator in the hospital's intensive care unit.
What Happened at the Site
The man who died Thursday had been evacuated from the scene in serious condition with multiple injuries, according to the hospital, which said he succumbed despite prolonged resuscitation efforts. The gas technician who died Wednesday was critically injured in the initial blast and did not survive. Police believe the explosion occurred when a gas cylinder detonated during the unloading of trucks at the facility, a routine industrial process that turned catastrophic.
Kiryat Gat police commander Shai Aleli described the sequence of events at the scene: one truck had finished unloading material into storage tanks and disconnected, and as a second truck connected to begin its own unloading, the explosion occurred. "We understand there was a malfunction," Aleli said, adding that investigators have not yet established whether criminal activity or negligence played a role. "At this point, I can't point to any suspicion of criminal activity or negligence," he noted.
A Toxic Leak Adds to the Danger
Beyond the explosion and fire, the incident triggered a leak of nitrogen trifluoride, a gas widely used in semiconductor manufacturing for cleaning and etching processes. NF₃ is not flammable, but it is highly toxic if inhaled, capable of causing severe respiratory damage and other serious health effects depending on exposure levels. Hazardous materials teams responded to the site to conduct continuous monitoring and assess the risk the leak posed to workers and nearby residents. Authorities later confirmed that the threat to the surrounding community had been contained and removed.
The presence of NF₃ underscores a risk inherent to advanced chip manufacturing: the industry relies on a range of specialty gases, some combustible, some corrosive, some toxic, that demand rigorous handling protocols at every stage, from delivery and unloading to storage and use on the production floor. Incidents involving these materials, while rare, carry consequences that extend well beyond the immediate site of an accident, which is why rapid hazmat response and transparent public communication become critical in the hours after an explosion like this one.
Questions That Remain Open
Investigators are now working to determine the precise mechanical or procedural failure that led to the cylinder's detonation. Whether the cause traces back to equipment malfunction, a lapse in unloading procedure, or inadequate safety oversight will shape not only the legal outcome but also what changes, if any, are made to protocols at the facility and potentially across the broader industry. For now, authorities have been careful not to assign blame prematurely, emphasizing that the investigation is in its early stages.
The incident has drawn attention to the safety demands placed on workers who handle industrial gases at high-technology manufacturing sites, a workforce whose routine tasks carry outsized risks when systems fail. Soroka Medical Center continues to treat the third victim, whose condition remains serious as doctors monitor his recovery.