A dad-of-four died after being in the sea with his wife saying how he would film but not "touch or feed" the predators as she "tells the truth" of the moments leading up to the horror attack.
, aged 40, has now been confirmed as the following a two-day search with police saying at the site of the attack on matched those of the man. Distressing footage shows the moment the man appeared to be battling with the predator in the sea off Hadera, in front of horrified crowds.
A shiver of endangered dusky and sandbar sharks has been swimming close to the area for years, attracting onlookers who approach the sharks and drawing pleas from conservation groups for authorities to separate people from the wild animal.
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In recent days, the waters drew large crowds who were seen swimming with the sharks. Some tugged on their tails and threw them food. Authorities condemned the behaviour and have issued warnings not to approach the sharks. Swimming is banned at the beach, but bathers enter the water regardless.
In a post, a woman identified by media as Tzach’s wife, said he had entered the waters with snorkelling gear and an underwater camera. It was not his first time swimming in this part of the sea, she said.
“Barak entered the water to dive and document the sharks, not to feed them or play with them,” wrote Sarit Tzach. She said a fisherman who was with her husband said he did not touch or feed them.
She stated: “With deep sorrow and wordless pain, we announce the death of our husband and father. I would like to put an end to the rumours that are being spread around the circumstances of his death and tell the truth.
“On the day of his death, Barak arrived at the beach after a day of work, as he often did. He entered the sea equipped with a snorkel, mask, fins, and a GoPro camera – without anything else, and certainly not with fish or bait, contrary to rumours."
When the sharks approached too closely, she said, he used the stick holding his camera to “gently distance them.” The fisherman then called Tzach back to the shore and as he slowly returned he was attacked, Ms Tzach wrote.
“In a conversation I had with a fisherman who witnessed the incident, I was told that he swam alongside a shark and later moved slightly away in a more open direction,” she wrote. “He filmed the sharks from a distance but didn’t touch or feed them. When they started to get too close to him, he used the GoPro’s stick to gently push them away. The fisherman called him back to shore, and Barak started swimming slowly toward him – and then he was attacked.”
It was just the third recorded shark attack in , according to Yigael Ben-Ari, head of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority’s marine rangers. One person was killed in an attack in the 1940s, he said.
Police and rescue teams held a two-day search after the attack and they said they were continuing to look for remains. Israeli authorities closed the beach and nearby ones as well after the attack.
Israelis flocked in large numbers to the beach during a weeklong holiday, sharing the waters with a dozen or more sharks. Dusky sharks can grow to four metres long and weigh about 350 kilograms. Sandbar sharks are smaller, growing to about 2.5 metres and 100 kilograms.
One video showed a shark swimming right up to bathers in thigh-deep water. “What a huge shark!” the man filming exclaims, as the shark approaches him. “Whoa! He’s coming toward us!”
“Don’t move!” he implores a boy standing nearby, who replies: “I’m leaving.” The man then asks: “What, are you afraid of the sharks?”
