Israeli police said they located two toddlers on Thursday after their father allegedly abducted them from the southern city of Ashdod and fled with them to a Palestinian village in the West Bank.
Police said they received a report earlier Thursday of a violent confrontation between a couple in Ashdod, after which the father took the couple’s two daughters, ages 3 and 1, and fled toward the West Bank.
The return of the toddlers abducted by their father to their home
(Video: Israel Police)
According to a police statement, officers immediately launched a search, tracing the route of the suspect’s vehicle, setting up roadblocks in the Judea area and gathering intelligence in real time.
That effort led detectives from the Hebron station, operating in the Judea district, together with Israeli soldiers from the Judah Brigade, into the village of Beit Awwa, police said.
The 31-year-old suspect was found in a house in the village and arrested, police said. The two girls were found unharmed.
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Arrest of a suspect in the abduction of his toddler daughters to the West Bank
(Photo: Israel Police)
Police said the children were taken by detectives in their mother’s car and were to be returned to her custody.
The suspect was being transferred for questioning at the Ashdod police station in the Lachish district.