Bat Yam woman killed; husband calls police to confess he murdered her
Suspect, said to be drunk, gives cops false addresses before finally directing them to crime scene; previously spent time in prison for assaulting his spouse
A man called police on Sunday to tell them he had murdered his wife and that her body was in their Bat Yam apartment.
It was the second time within a week that a husband has admitted to killing his wife. The incident came as welfare groups warned that lockdown measures aimed at curbing the coronavirus outbreak are causing an increase in domestic violence.
Magen David Adom paramedics who arrived at the home on Yoseftal Street in the central coastal city found the woman’s body and declared her dead at the scene.
Her husband, reportedly in his 50s, was arrested shortly afterwards near the apartment.
Earlier, he had called police three times and told them, “I murdered my wife.”
Police said the suspect sounded intoxicated and in the first two calls and gave false addresses before finally directing officers to the correct apartment.
The couple have two children, aged 10 and 11, who were not at home when the woman, 38, was killed.
The man had previously served time in prison for assaulting his wife.
Hagit Pe’er, head of the Na’amat women’s organization, said in a statement that the murder of women was becoming “routine.”
She said the coronavirus crisis is “a health and economic pressure cooker that will further increase incidents of violence in the near future. It is likely we are already seeing this.”
Pe’er called on the government to immediately fund its NIS 250 million (some $71 million) project to combat domestic violence that, she said, has been in “deep freeze” since 2017.
The death in Bat Yam brought to four the number of women killed in domestic violence incidents since the beginning of the coronavirus lockdown in March.
Last week a man confessed to having stabbed his wife to death in Holon. The suspect in that crime, Alaza Mandparo, had weeks earlier been released from prison after being sentenced for physically assaulting his wife last year.
Earlier this month, a 45-year-old woman was shot dead by an intruder in front of her husband in their Lod home. A police investigation led to the arrest of a family member. In March, a woman was killed in Rishon Lezion, with police assessing that her husband shot her and then tried to commit suicide.
Last Wednesday, the Welfare Ministry said that during the preceding two weeks, there were four times as many complaints about domestic violence as there were during the first month of lockdown, Haaretz reported.
During the 12 days from April 16 until last Monday, the national domestic violence helpline received 400 complaints, an average of more than 33 every day. During the month from March 15 until April 15 there were a total 244 complaints received, an average of eight complaints a day.
In response to the spike, the ministry opened a new method of contacting the helpline via text message, intended for those who are unable to speak privately, the newspaper reported.
Hours before the woman’s body was found in Bat Yam, the Welfare and Social Services Ministry reported that there have been four incidents of suicide due to domestic violence since the start of lockdown orders aimed at curbing the outbreak.
Two men and two women have taken their own lives since limitations on time spent outside the home and travel were introduced in March, the Welfare Ministry’s national superintendent for domestic violence, Hagai Moyal, said.
Moyal told the Knesset Special Committee for Welfare and Labor that there has recently been a 20 percent increase in domestic violence.
Committee Chair MK Aida Touma-Sliman (Joint List) said that the restrictions on movement imposed on the public meant that women in danger of domestic violence were being forced into “a trap” that confines them with those who pose the biggest danger to them.
Touma-Sliman sent a message to any women who may be in danger, urging them, “Don’t stay in a home where there is violence.”
Touma-Sliman criticized the Welfare Ministry for the limitations of its recently launched campaign to rehabilitate women who escape domestic violence, as it is currently available only in Hebrew, and not in Arabic or Amharic, the language spoken by many Ethiopian Israelis.
Moyal reported that additional languages will be added to the campaign in the coming days.
Israel has begun lifting some of the lockdown restrictions that saw citizens confined to their homes and only permitted outside for essential needs, to attend critical jobs, or for short walks. There have been 16,193 cases of coronavirus diagnosed in the country, with 231 deaths.
The Times of Israel Community.