Woman killed in Ashdod home, police arrest her husband as suspect

A woman died Tuesday after being attacked at her home in the southern port city of Ashdod, with police launching a murder investigation and arresting her husband.

The woman, aged 40, was apparently struck multiple times with a hammer. She was rushed in serious condition to Assuta medical center in Ashdod, where she was pronounced dead.

Police detained a man they said was at the scene. Several Hebrew media outlets identified him as the woman’s husband.

The woman’s ex-husband was also arrested in the area.

“She was a good and quiet woman, I never heard she had any problems,” a neighbor was quoted as saying.

A police statement said investigators were examining all possibilities.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who partially campaigned on a law-and-order agenda, later visited the scene and called for funding to hire additional police officers.

“We must restore governance,” Ben Gvir, who heads the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, wrote on Twitter.

The incident came a day after police arrested a man in the central city of Ness Ziona on suspicion of murdering his sister, and following two recent suspected murders of women in the central city of Lod.

Domestic violence in Israel is on the rise, according to figures released in November by the Welfare and Social Affairs Ministry.

“Two women were murdered in the past two days. Four in two weeks. It’s shocking, it’s grave. There can’t be silence,” opposition leader Yair Lapid tweeted Monday.

Numerous protests have been held in recent years over the authorities’ handling of domestic violence, particularly in cases where the victims were already known to be in abusive relationships.