Mother suspected in infant’s drowning in hotel jacuzzi

A woman has been held as a suspect after her month-old baby drowned in a hotel jacuzzi in Ashdod Monday.

She had originally claimed the baby slipped from her arms while she was bathing him in the family’s room in the Miami Hotel in Ashdod, where they were vacationing for the Passover festival.

A court-imposed gag order prevented publication of further details of the case.

The Ashkelon Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday agreed to a police request to perform an autopsy on the baby. The family, said to be from Beit Shemesh, was reportedly opposed to carrying out the postmortem examination.

On Monday night ultra-Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem and Ashdod protested the investigation and the possible autopsy, temporarily blocking traffic and the light rail system and clashing with police. There were further demonstrations in Jerusalem on Tuesday.

Paramedics said they attempted to resuscitate the infant and rushed him to the city’s Assuta Medical Center, but medical staff were unable to save his life.

Initial reports said that the baby’s father was asleep and his mother was in the tub with her son, but he slipped out of her hands.