Abandoned newborn found in Hadera stairwell, authorities search for parents

A newborn baby was found abandoned in the stairwell of an office building in Hadera on Monday, with police and welfare services launching a search to find his parents.

The boy, estimated by medics to be no more than two weeks old, was found next to a branch of the National Insurance Institute in the northern city.

According to Hebrew media reports, he was wrapped in a blanket.

Police were alerted, and staff fed the baby until the Magen David Adom emergency service arrived to take him to the city’s Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, where he was said to be in stable condition and fully conscious.

In a statement, the NII said that a logistics worker had entered a building next to the institute’s branch to check the location ahead of planned office renovations. The worker found the baby on the stairs.

NII staff took the baby to their own offices, cleaned him, and fed him, while alerting police and welfare services, the statement said.

MDA medic Shira Simantov said in a statement that as soon as they reached the baby, she “hugged him close and tried to give him the safest feeling possible.”

“We wanted to prevent hypothermia, so we wrapped him in blankets and put him in the ambulance,” Simantov said. “He was relatively quiet, cried a bit, but he is in good condition.”

Simantov said medics were unsure how long the baby had been lying in the stairwell, and that he might even have been there since the previous day.

The NII said it was assisting police and welfare services to find the parents of the baby.