Israeli police find toddler's body
Israeli police today found the body of a 22-month-old girl whose mysterious weekend disappearance had gripped the nation, with thousands of volunteers searching for the toddler.
The father was arrested as a suspect, police said.
For three days, the search had dominated the news, remarkable for a country caught in a dizzying pace of events, including shooting and bombing attacks by Palestinian militants and intense political wrangling ahead of Jan. 28 elections.
Child abduction is rare in Israel, another reason the case drew so much attention. Also on the weekend, a five-year-old Arab girl went missing in Jerusalem, further heightening the public’s concern.
The body of the toddler, Hodaya Kedem-Pimstein, was found in a field on the outskirts of Jerusalem, near where she went missing Saturday.
Her father, Eli Pimstein, initially said his daughter disappeared from the living room of his Jerusalem home when he went to the bathroom. The girl’s parents are separated and she had been visiting her father over the weekend.
From the start, police ruled out the possibility that Palestinian militants had kidnapped the toddler.
For the past three days, the little girl’s smiling face has dominated the front pages of newspapers, pushing to the back pages other news, such as the election of parliamentary candidates for the Likud and Labour parties.
In interviews, the girl’s sobbing mother, Roni Kedem, appealed to anyone who might have kidnapped her daughter to bring her back.
About 3,500 volunteers, including some on horseback, searched the quiet streets and wooded areas of the Kiryat Yovel neighbourhood, which was the scene of two deadly suicide bombings by Palestinian militants in the past months.
Increasingly, the girl’s father became a suspect, with police questioning him repeatedly. This morning, before the discovery of the body, Pimstein gave emotional interviews to radio stations, breaking into tears at times.
He said he was not upset by the tough police questioning and that he appreciated the thoroughness of the investigation.
A few hours later, police announced they had found the girl’s body buried in a field near Kiryat Yovel. Her clothes were found nearby. Jerusalem Police Chief Mickey Levy said the father was the prime suspect.
It was not clear how police knew where the body was located.
Meanwhile, searches continued for a five-year-old Arab girl who disappeared from a nearby Jerusalem neighbourhood, also over the weekend. Police said Nur Abu-Teir might have been kidnapped as part of a possible dispute between rival clans, and that there was no link to the disappearance to the Jewish toddler.
In a radio call-in show, a caller said the country’s willingness to pull together to search for a little girl would show the Palestinians how sacred life is and persuade them to stop carrying out attacks in the more than two-years of fighting.
“The whole country stood up to help find her,” said the caller, who only gave his first name, Nahum. “I know Palestinians hear your programme and I want to say thousands of people were involved in the searches, in mud and rain, and this is especially extraordinary. The sanctity of life is above all politics.”
