4-year-old drowns in bathtub in Eilat, mother arrested

A four-year-old boy died Tuesday morning after drowning in a bathtub the previous night in Eilat. Police arrested the boy’s mother on suspicion that she may have drowned the child.

Emergency services arrived at the house around 7:30 p.m. Monday night, finding the child unconscious and in serious condition. The child was rushed to Yoseftal Medical Center in Eilat, then transferred to the pediatric intensive care unit at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba in critical condition, and despite resuscitation efforts, was declared dead early Tuesday.

Police suspect the mother is mentally unstable and attempted to commit suicide recently. She will undergo a psychiatric evaluation as part of the investigation.

The woman is a Ukrainian citizen in a relationship with an Israeli man, according to the news outlet Kan. The couple’s neighbors claim they heard the woman’s partner yell “you killed him” when he returned to the family home Monday night. It is unclear whether the woman’s partner is the father of the child.

Police questioned the man and released him from custody Tuesday morning.

Last year, a month-old baby drowned in a hotel hot tub in the southern city of Ashdod. The infant’s 28-year-old mother had a history of mental health issues and admitted to killing her son, telling investigators she held him underwater because a divine voice told her he would emerge from it as a grown man.