With need spiking, government said to okay funds for 2nd forensic medicine institute

Existing facility unable to handle volume; plans for new one predate October 7, but gained renewed urgency following massacre and ensuing forensic oversights

The government has approved funds for a new medical forensic institute, to share the load with the overworked National Institute for Forensic Medicine in Abu Kabir, the Kan public broadcaster reported Sunday.

The Abu Kabir institute — the only one of its kind in Israel, located in Jaffa — was unable to process the majority of the victims of Hamas’s brutal October 7 massacre, and most of the bodies were instead taken to the Israel Defense Forces Rabbinate headquarters in the Shura base near Ramle.

On October 7, some 3,000 Hamas-led terrorists invaded Israel from Gaza, killing nearly 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and taking over 240 hostages of all ages, while weaponizing sexual violence on a mass scale.

The sheer volume of bodies, and their handling at a Rabbinate installation unequipped for such investigations, made it impossible for forensic authorities to properly document all the instances of rape and other atrocities committed by the terrorists, which could make it difficult for Israel to prosecute their crimes.

Even before October 7, the perennially understaffed Abu Kabir institute was collapsing under its workload. In the wake of the rampage, the institute’s workforce was reinforced by several volunteers and draftees.

As far back as 2019, the economic daily Calcalist reported that then-deputy health minister Yaakov Litzman had decided to establish a second institute for forensic medicine. The move was part of an overhaul that would see the existing institute relocated to Shamir Medical Center (formerly Assaf Harofeh) in Tzrifin. The Abu Kabir institute has operated under the auspices of Shamir Medical Center since 2004.

Dr. Chen Kugel, head of the National Center of Forensic Medicine (Abu Kabir) in Jaffa, speaks at a press conference about the identification process of the victims of the murderous Hamas attacks on southern communities on October 7, 2023. Jaffa, October 16, 2023. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

A statement last week from the Health Ministry announced that the ministries of health and finance had agreed to go forward with the existing institute’s relocation to Shamir Medical Center, as well as an allocation of funds to address the institute’s understaffing problem. However, the statement made no mention of a new institute.

The statement quoted Health Minister Uriel Buso as saying the war in Gaza had forced the government to rethink its priorities. Among other things, he said, strengthening the National Institute for Forensic Medicine has become “the current imperative, which cannot be delayed.”

The National Institute for Forensic Medicine (Abu Kabir) was opened in 1955, and operated under the auspices of the Israel Police before switching to the Tel Aviv University Medical School, and finally to the Shamir Medical Center. It is the only institute in Israel empowered to perform forensic autopsies on people who died unexpectedly, assisting in the detection of foul play.