Body of young woman, apparently stabbed to death, found in field near Rehovot
Investigators work to discover identity of victim in her 20s; case to be investigated by serious crimes unit; man from Bat Yam arrested
The body of a young woman who was apparently stabbed to death was found Thursday morning in a field near the central Israeli city of Rehovot, Israel Police said in a statement.
A passerby found her body lying close to a road. Medical teams called to the scene declared the woman dead. Police said they were notified at 5 a.m. They opened an investigation and forensic teams were gathering evidence from the site.
Authorities later named the woman as Yelena Greenberg, 27, of Rishon Lezion.
Her body was found with multiple stab wounds, according to Hebrew media reports.
Police later said they had arrested a man, also in his 20s, on suspicion of killing the woman. The man was arrested at his home in the coastal city of Bat Yam.
Police said the man was being interrogated and would be brought before a judge for a hearing on keeping him in custody.
They did not release any further details on the suspect or the motive for the crime.
District police commander Deputy Commissioner Avi Bitan held an assessment of the case after which it was decided that it would be handled by the district’s serious crime unit, police said. The investigation was given top priority, Channel 12 reported.
Activists have long complained that not enough is done to prevent violence against women in Israel, particularly in cases known to the authorities.
A study by the Hebrew University-based Israel Observatory on Femicide examining the first half of 2022 found a 71 percent increase in femicide relative to the same period last year — 12 compared to seven.
Last month Prime Minister Yair Lapid addressed the scourge of violence against women, saying it was “a stain on the country and it cannot continue.”
“Even though all of these cases differ from each other, they have one common denominator: terrible violence directed against women. It is our responsibility as a society and our obligation as the government to eradicate this phenomenon,” the premier said, listing several recent cases of murder and sexual assault against women.
