“He was a child who should have been walking with a new backpack on his back, excited to see his friends,” a relative of 7-year-old Hillel Mordechai Dadon said after the boy was stabbed to death during a birthday celebration in Beit Shemesh, just one week after another relative was killed in a traffic accident.
“He should have been dreaming children’s dreams. What did he see in his final moments?” the relative told ynet.
“What kind of evil in this world dares touch a pure child who never harmed anyone?” he said. “Our hearts are shattered into pieces. Pain and grief are surrounding the family from every direction, and there are no words that can explain the enormity of the void and frustration.”
Hillel was stabbed to death Monday afternoon, while his 4-year-old cousin was seriously wounded. The younger boy’s condition has since stabilized at the hospital. A 15-year-old relative who had been looking after the children witnessed the attack. The father of one of the children found them wounded near the swimming pool in the backyard.
Police arrested a 25-year-old neighbor on suspicion of stabbing the two children and are investigating whether a dispute between the families may have led to the attack. The suspect’s father was questioned at the scene.
Dadon with a relative about an hour before the deadly attack
The stabbing was reported to the Magen David Adom ambulance service's Jerusalem district emergency center at 4:40 p.m. Monday.
“We arrived at a horrifying scene, with a great deal of commotion outside,” MDA medic Yosef Haim Berenfeld said. “We were led to two children who had suffered serious injuries, including one child who was unconscious, with no pulse and not breathing, and another who was conscious.”
“We provided them with lifesaving medical treatment, performed resuscitation and evacuated them to the hospital in critical and serious condition,” he said.
Scene of the murder in Beit Shemesh
(Photo: Shalev Shalom)
Beit Shemesh Mayor Shmuel Greenberg said the city had experienced two devastating incidents in which children were killed.
“Beit Shemesh has experienced two difficult and painful incidents in the past hour, in each of which the life of a child was cut short,” Greenberg said. “In the serious stabbing incident, one child was killed, and in a traffic accident another child was killed.”
He said municipal welfare workers and psychological services were assisting the affected families and others who needed support. “Our hearts are with the families who have lost what is most precious to them, and we pray for the well-being and recovery of the wounded,” he said.
(Photo: Shalev Shalom)
The commander of the Beit Shemesh police station said officers received a report about injured children and quickly determined that they had suffered penetrating wounds.
Large police forces were dispatched to the scene, including senior Jerusalem District commanders. Officers identified a man they considered suspicious, arrested him and took him to the station. The investigation will be handled by the Jerusalem District’s central investigative unit, police said, adding that all possible motives remain under examination.