A 7-year-old boy was fatally stabbed Monday afternoon at a home in the central city of Beit Shemesh during a birthday celebration, while his 4-year-old cousin was seriously wounded in the attack.
Magen David Adom (MDA) paramedics rushed both children to Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center in Jerusalem, where doctors pronounced the 7-year-old dead. His cousin remained in serious condition.
A 15-year-old relative had been watching the children and witnessed the attack, according to initial information. The father of one of the children found them wounded near a swimming pool at the home.
Police arrested a neighbor in his 20s on suspicion of stabbing the two children. Investigators are examining whether the suspect was experiencing a mental health crisis and whether a dispute between the families may have played a role. The suspect’s father was being questioned at the scene.
MDA said its Jerusalem district emergency center received a report at 4:40 p.m. of two children wounded at a home in Beit Shemesh, west of Jerusalem.
“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 suffering from severe injuries.”
The scene of the stabbing
(Photo: Liran Tamari)
Berenfeld said the older child was unconscious, had no pulse and was not breathing, while the younger child was conscious. Paramedics provided lifesaving treatment and performed CPR on the older boy before taking both children to the hospital.
Beit Shemesh Mayor Shmuel Greenberg said the city had experienced two deadly incidents involving children within the space of an hour — the stabbing and a separate traffic accident in which another child was killed.
“Beit Shemesh has experienced two difficult and painful incidents in the past hour, in each of which a child’s life was cut short,” Greenberg said. “A child was killed in the serious stabbing incident, and another child was killed in a traffic accident.”
Greenberg said municipal social workers and psychological services teams were at the scenes providing support to the families and others affected.
“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 injured,” he said.