The body of missing Israeli hiker Michal Gili Cherkasky was located on Monday, the Foreign Ministry announced, ending a week-long search and bringing the total number of Israelis killed in last week's deadly Nepal avalanche to four. According to the statement, the family of 36-year-old Cherkasky has been notified of her death. Fears mounted over Cherkasky's fate after days of searching through the blizzard and avalanche-affected areas did not yield any signs of life. The rescue teams, including Israeli teams from the Harel Insurance company, had been searching with helicopters through an area a couple of hundred meters in size. The weather and terrain of the Annapurna mountain range have made search efforts very difficult. "The worst of all has happened," said Lior Koren, Cherkasky's brother, upon learning of her death. "My beloved sister Michal chose to leave this world atop a mountain, close to heaven. It breaks my heart that I couldn't save her, so young and so loved." A member of the rescue team, Yochai Lilior, told Channel 2 news Sunday that even the bravest and most skilled hikers could not have survived the conditions to which Cherkasky was subjected. "It was a joint effort between us and the army," he said. "They searched from below and we searched from above. I think that even the biggest hero couldn't have survived these conditions, for days in such temperatures, with a lack of oxygen. The likelihood of finding her alive was low." Nepalese authorities have confirmed the deaths of 43 people in the deadly storm. As well as Cherkasky, the Israelis killed were: Capt. Tamar Ariel, 24, the first religious female navigator in the Israeli Air Force, Agam Luria, 23, and Nadav Shoham, 30.
