After investigation, police say no foul-play in death of woman in Haifa apartment

Police have ruled out foul play in the death of a woman on Friday in the Haifa suburbs after initially arresting two men who had been in the apartment with the deceased.

The woman’s corpse was found by paramedics in her apartment in Kiryat Yam, just north of Haifa. She was around 60 years old at the time of her death. Her identity was not specified.

According to the Ynet news site, police did not initially suspect foul play in the woman’s death when they arrived at the scene, as her body did not show any outward signs of violence.

However, one of the men in the apartment did not cooperate fully with investigators, arousing suspicion, which was strengthened upon the arrival of the forensics team, the site said.

The two men, ages 51 and 44, were then arrested. Their connection to the woman was not immediately clear.

Police said there was no longer a suspicion of murder after the woman’s body was examined at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute. The remains have been released from the institute for burial.

The murder investigation was the first of its kind in 2026, having begun just hours into the new year.

In 2025, 44 adult women were murdered in Israel, roughly the same as the year before.

However, according to the Israel Observatory on Femicide, which collects data related to the killing of women because they are female, there was a sharp rise in the proportion of those murders that could be classified as femicide.

Thirty-four of the women who were murdered last year were killed in acts of femicide, according to the IOF, which is affiliated with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Femicide includes acts such as honor killings, matricide, and murder by a partner or family member.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.