Violent riots erupted Monday night in Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh as hundreds of extremist ultra-Orthodox protesters clashed with police over a prosecution request to autopsy two infants who died at an unlicensed daycare in Jerusalem, setting trash bins on fire, blocking buses and prompting the use of water cannons and stun grenades.
The unrest escalated after Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch, a senior leader of the Jerusalem Faction, issued an unusual directive calling on followers to take to the streets. “There is an obligation on every individual to go out and protest against autopsies and the desecration of the dead,” his office said.
Hundreds of extremist ultra-Orthodox protesters riot
(Video: Liran Tamari)
The infants, Leah Golovenchitz, 3 months old, and Aaron Katz, 6 months old, died earlier Monday under circumstances that remain unclear. While one of the families had agreed to an autopsy intended to determine the cause of death they later withdrew their agreement, while the other refused.
Later on Monday night, the Jerusalem Magistrates Court approved the autopsies requested by police and prosecutors. The ZAKA legal department will file an appeal on behalf of the families with the Supreme Court. ZAKA legal department representative Shenir Elmalich is representing the families and said that the appeal to the High Court is "with the aim of exhausting every legal option to preserve the dignity of the toddlers and minimize the harm to them as much as possible."
According to an initial assessment at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute, the babies did not die from poisoning but are believed to have died from dehydration caused by an air conditioner operating on high heat in a closed room where they were staying. A final determination has not yet been made.
Protesters blocked the Shmuel HaNavi junction in Jerusalem and set trash bins on fire along Yehezkel Street. Additional fires were reported on Nahar HaYarden Street in Beit Shemesh. Clashes broke out with police, who used batons, water cannons and stun grenades to disperse the crowds.
Video from the scene showed a police water cannon striking a child, sending him toward the wheels of a moving vehicle and narrowly avoiding serious injury. In another incident, an officer was filmed repeatedly striking a protester with a baton as he clung to a bus blocking traffic.
As in previous demonstrations, protesters attempted to halt traffic by clinging to buses. The scenes came less than two weeks after 14-year-old Yosef Eisental was killed when he was struck and dragged by a bus during a protest against military conscription, after demonstrators surrounded a vehicle and attempted to climb onto it.
Police said officers from the Jerusalem District and Border Police were operating on Yehezkel and Bar-Ilan streets in Jerusalem and on Nahar HaYarden Street in Beit Shemesh to restore public order after demonstrators blocked roads, set fires and “severely disrupted daily life.”
“Violent riots, attacks on officers and the blocking of major traffic arteries are criminal offenses that endanger human life and could end in disaster,” police said.
Witnesses at the daycare said the air conditioner was operating at an unusually high temperature, potentially dangerous for infants. The medical investigation into the incident is ongoing.
Dr. Saar Cheshin, director of the pediatric emergency department at Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center, said initial tests found no indication of poisoning.
“All of the children who were examined, including the infant who later died at the medical center, had normal carbon monoxide levels,” he said, adding that this finding “almost completely rules out” carbon monoxide poisoning.
Doctors are also examining other possibilities, including food poisoning or suffocation if the infants were covered with blankets. Tests for exposure to pesticides or other toxic substances are still pending, though physicians said they would be surprised if abnormal findings emerge.
“This is a major question mark,” Cheshin said. “It is a very complex event for the medical teams, the parents and the children, both because of the large number of infants involved and the uncertainty surrounding what happened. We hope that with time and with the police investigation, the cause will become clear.”
The attorney representing the daycare operator said his client expressed deep sorrow and is cooperating fully with investigators. He denied reports that children were made to sleep in bathrooms or on shelves, calling those claims unfounded.
First published: 22:12, 01.19.26