Illustrative photo of firefighters combating a blaze. (JINIPIX/Flash90)
Three toddlers aged between 1 and 4 died Saturday evening after sustaining severe injuries from smoke inhalation in a fire that broke out in an apartment in the southern Israeli Bedouin town of Rahat.
Doctors at the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba where the toddlers Eden, Hoda and Tawfiq were rushed following the fire pronounced them dead a short while after their arrival.
The three toddlers’ parents, who were at a relative’s home nearby, noticed the flames and rushed back to their apartment in order to rescue the children.
“When we came the sight was a difficult one, we saw the medical staff carrying out CPR,” Magen David Adom paramedic Najib Saana said. “The three toddlers were lying unconscious, not breathing and without a pulse, and on their faces were signs of soot.”
Firefighters were attempting to put out the fire at the Rahat apartment, and police were investigating possible reasons for the blaze’s outbreak. Initial reports indicated that the fire was caused by a malfunction in a heater.
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Amin Shaaban, a 42-year-old cab driver from Lod who was murdered in Tel Aviv on January 1, 2016 (Channel 2 news)
The mother of the children is a relative of Amin Shaaban from Lod, a taxi driver who was killed Friday in Tel Aviv. Police are still investigating whether the apparent murder was related to a shooting attack in the city earlier that day in which Nashat Milhen, who is still on the run, allegedly killed two Israelis and injured seven more.
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