Two Israelis who took part in high-profile kidnapping in Germany to give evidence — report

By ToI Staff and AFP 28 November 2025, 6:18 pm

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Defendant German entrepreneur and gastronome Christina Block (5L) stands next to her lawyers Ingo Bott (4L) and Otmar Kury (6L), and defendant German former sports commentator and partner, Gerhard Delling (front L), in front of the presiding judge Isabel Hildebrand (R) during the continuation of the trial over alleged child abduction at the District Court in Hamburg, northern Germany, on July 15, 2025. (Marcus Brandt / POOL / AFP)

Two Israelis who took part in a high-profile kidnapping landed this week in Germany to give evidence to police on the case, the Bild tabloid reports.

The two are members of a group of former Mossad agents believed to have been hired by a well-known heiress to a German chain of steakhouses, Christina Block, to kidnap her children from their father’s house, with whom she had divorced and was engaged in a custody battle.

According to Bild, one of the Israelis, unnamed in the report, was questioned by police yesterday. The man reportedly told the police that the operation was coordinated with German authorities.

The kidnappers did not act in secret, used real passports, and rented cars with their own credit cards, he told the investigators, Bild reports. He is said to have described his links to Block and the chain of command in the operation.

He also reportedly confirmed allegations by Block’s ex-husband that Israeli model Jonathan Carlsson, who is suspected of having taken part in the kidnapping, assaulted him during the kidnapping.

The second Israeli is set to confirm the details, Bild reports.

Block faces trial alongside her partner, the German television presenter Gerhard Delling, and a 35-year-old Israeli man, who allegedly took part in the kidnapping, among others.

On New Year’s Eve 2023, the Israeli man and other suspects — some of whom are still on the run from authorities — are accused of ambushing the father at his Danish property and knocking him down.

The group allegedly dragged the two children, a boy and a girl aged 10 and 13 at the time of the incident, into a car and drove them away, according to the indictment.

The children, who resisted the alleged kidnappers, are said to have had their mouths taped, and the hands of one of them were tied.

The pair were held in a mobile home in the southwest of Germany until Block arrived to pick them up on January 2, 2024, prosecutors said.

Delling is accused of abetting the kidnapping effort and organizing Block’s return to Hamburg with the children.

The children were later handed over to police custody by a lawyer in the northern German city.