(JTA) — Two Israeli Bedouin children died in a fire that they apparently started inside a parking car.
The boys, aged 3 and 4, may have been playing with matches, a police spokesperson told Israel’s Army Radio. The parents of the toddlers left them unattended at an olive grove near Beersheva and the boys entered the care without being noticed, the report said.
The mother reportedly told police she never saw the boys enter the car, and that when she saw the vehicle it was engulfed in flames. The parents, who live near Dudaim in Israel’s Negev Desert, were released after police questioning. Police have not decided whether to charge them with negligence, the report said.
Last year, a 4-year-old Arab Israeli child was burned alive in a car near Karmiel, in Israel’s North. His parents left him to wait in the car as they were picking olives.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
