It was cleared for publication that Dudu Melamed, 43, and Saar Melamed, 6, were the father and son found dead Sunday morning in a home in Moshav Aviel, near Binyamina. The father is suspected of killing his son and then taking his own life. Before the incident, Melamed apparently wrote to his sister, who lives in the U.S., that he “couldn’t take it anymore.” Noam, Dudu’s estranged wife and Saar’s mother, was informed of the grim details during the morning.
Melamed lived in a home belonging to his father-in-law, Noam’s father. A relative, sobbing, said: “He loved Saar very much. He was his whole world. He always cared for him and invested in him. He was with him all day, picked him up from the kindergarten in Pardes Hanna where he studied over the past year and rode bicycles with him. It is a great and incomprehensible pain.”
Scene of the murder-suicide in Aviel
(Video: Elad Gershgoren)
Aharon Azoulay, security officer for the Alona Regional Council, which includes the moshav, said: “We were called to the home by the grandfather. I arrived with firefighters and we found the father and child shot. He was an only child and they lived here alone. It is being examined whether the shooting was carried out with the grandfather’s gun.”
A neighbor described the shock in the community: “The father worked in gardening and agriculture in the moshav. He was devoted to the child and cared for him here in his father-in-law’s home. The child was in a kind of homeschooling. Everyone here is stunned. This is a very difficult tragedy.”
Another neighbor added: “It is simply incomprehensible. The father raised the child and constantly took care of all his needs. He had endless paternal devotion. No one expected this to happen. The parents were separated. The mother would come here from time to time, but the father was the main person raising the boy.”
Another neighbor said Saar’s mother had been informed of the events: “This is an amazing family. There was nothing unusual with them. The father and child were very attached. People here cannot grasp the tragedy.”
Alona Regional Council head Arie Sharon said: “The welfare department is not aware of any previous cases. I am a friend of Shuki, the grandfather, and he is sobbing. This is a tragic case and everything is still under investigation.”
Magen David Adom paramedic Shulamit Arinos said: “When we arrived at the scene, we were led into the apartment. We saw a man and a child unconscious, with no pulse and not breathing. We performed medical checks and unfortunately had to pronounce them dead at the scene.”
Deputy Superintendent Dudu Atias, commander of the Zichron Yaakov police station, said at the scene: “Around 6 a.m., a report was received about concern for human life. Police forces, together with the local authority, firefighters and MDA, arrived at the scene, entered the apartment and found two people wounded, who were later pronounced dead. We are currently in the evidence-gathering stage.”
The Alona Regional Council comprises three moshavim east of Binyamina. It is the regional council with the smallest number of communities and residents in Israel.