Operation "Peni Malach": the search for the girl Heimnot Kassau Mitzvah/Israel Police Spokesperson
About 600 missing persons disappeared from the country in one day and their location remains a mystery even decades later.
Every year between 6 and 16 people disappear in Israel.
About 300 of them appear with their photos on the Israel Police's missing persons website in the hope that they might be identified, perhaps in time they will be able to close the circle and locate another missing person.
About three weeks ago, 9-year-old Haimanut Kasau of Mistafa also entered the "statistics" and there is currently no clue as to her fate.
The reasons for the absence in Israel are different and it is not clear how the continuation of the difficult phenomenon can be prevented by the authorities, especially the Israel Police, which is having great difficulty in dealing with the issue, in terms of locating and searching for the missing, due to a shortage of personnel and internal organizational priorities.
She has been missing for three weeks.
9-year-old Haymanut Kassau/Photo processing, courtesy of the family
But Kasao, as mentioned, is not the only case of a missing person who was "swallowed by the earth".
Nega Yitzhak was 34 years old when the search for her began on November 22, 2018. She was seen in Tel Aviv and since then she has disappeared.
Five and a half years have passed and Nega's father, Ron, still does not know what happened to his daughter.
"There are ups and downs in moods. There is a feeling that there were many mistakes and they didn't do what needed to be done in real time," said Father Ron in a conversation with Walla!.
"Whether it's downloading documents from cameras, tracing traces from the place where Nega was last seen. They didn't reach everyone we reached. Even the smears of the police chiefs, which they said at every meeting they do night and day - these were words from the mouth to the outside world. Although there were actions and efforts, They were not done in the right directions. You feel that you are being turned around on the little finger."
Ron says that he acted apart from the police level, both with the High Court and with two private investigators and even with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI.
But that won't happen," says Ron sadly. "She was so connected to those around her and to me in particular, and we had daily conversations.
Even after 5 years, the thoughts don't stop, and the eyes run from side to side, left to right, especially when traveling, trying to locate, recognize, perhaps a change in hairstyle, way of walking, anything that reminds me of her, a song or a laugh that reminds me of her, because Nega was with countless animals ends, she swept away everyone who was around her."
And it's blue and white
The device that changes everything you knew about refreshing and firming the facial skin
In collaboration with Premier
Missing since November 2018. Nega Yitzhak/screenshot, Facebook
In the last few days, volunteers of the YCL unit went on a search in the Haifa area and the Jerusalem mountains for two missing persons who have disappeared in the last few months. One is Itamar Schlesinger, 33 years old from Ramat Gan, who apparently left his home on September 21, 2023. His car was found abandoned after he was apparently involved in an accident nearby to the village of Ein Hud and since then his traces have disappeared. "Itamar did not hide things, he had a good relationship with his parents," his father Gadi told Walla! The Arab Ein Hud, during which several residents were slightly injured, and they did not clearly know that it was my son, because the last photo of him in the car was on Route 4. We do not know why he veered off the road and entered there.
It could be that he was involved in an accident and had a seizure."
At this point, the Schlesinger family's life turned upside down. "We drove to the scene and arrived at the car.
All his equipment and the phone remained in the vehicle.
We searched near the village.
We have no idea what happened there.
Maybe they did something to him after he hurt people there in the village.
It's a very spacious cell, maybe he ran away out of panic and something happened to him," Father Gedi wondered. "On the day of the accident, he wasn't available, so we went to his apartment, we saw that the door was open.
We thought maybe he went out to buy cigarettes, but he didn't come back.
The day before he told his mother Sima that he wanted to go for a walk.
He liked to travel in the north.
He is a very humble and sociable guy.
He dealt with mental illness, but he is a responsible and beautiful boy."
Absent since September.
Itamar Schlesinger/courtesy of the family
The missing in Israel have no legal status
Another missing person who is being searched for these days is Yoram Hillel Peliter, 31 years old, who lived in the city of Safed and recently graduated with a degree in psychology at Tel Hai College and worked in an association that helps those with mental illness in the city of Safed.
With the outbreak of the war on October 7, Yoram went down to the south and joined a group of volunteers preparing food for the soldiers and the security forces.
A month and a half later he cut contact with his family and friends and since then his traces have practically disappeared.
Initially, the search was focused on the northern area and about a week ago his car was found abandoned in a forest near Beit Shemesh.
"We are at a loss. There have been searches in the Beit Shemesh area for a week and we expect the police to work," demanded Avraham, Yoram's brother.
"His phone was only checked this week and we fear that he may have been kidnapped because the area of Beit Shemesh and Gush Etzion is also a seam. It is an area that is traveled a lot, but no one has come across him."
Yoram's brother has serious claims to the police.
"The police are not active in searching for him and unfortunately, the case was opened at the Safed police and they are very busy and the searches are generally in Beit Shemesh - so there is a disconnect between the station handling the case and the sector where it is located and that's how we fall through the cracks," the brother claimed.
Absent at the outbreak of the war.
Yoram Hillel Fliter/courtesy of the family
Another body that tries to help is the association "Baladaim" that helps missing families.
The person who founded the association is Varda Minivitsky together with her husband Shoki, Daniel's mother who has been missing since October 11, 2014. Today Daniel is 43 years old and his fate is also unknown.
"Our goal is to establish a body that will deal only with the issue of missing people," Varda demands.
"We promoted legislation that would regulate the status of the missing and that there would be help for the families because today the missing have no legal status. They seem to exist, but they do not exist. There are countless problems related to this, as in the case of my son, who received funds from a provident fund and more than a decade has passed and I cannot redeem the funds. There are missing people who took out a mortgage, for example, and when the funds are not paid, the banks turn to the guarantors and it ends up in court."
Minivitsky actually thinks that the handling of the issue of the missing in Israel is better than other countries in the world.
"In France, for example, there is no law that obliges the authorities to look for missing people and they do not look for missing people because a person has the right to leave the house unless they are elderly Alzheimer's patients or children under the age of 18."
Varda Minivitsky with her son Daniel who has been missing for a decade/courtesy of the family
"In other countries they don't bother to look"
Into the vacuum of the lack of sufficient personnel to search for the missing enter several civil bodies that offer their services to the families and relatives of the missing with some assistance in locating them.
The most important of them is the Israel Canine Unit (YKAL), with Mike Ben Yaacov, who heads it, moving in recent weeks with dogs between the search centers for Kassau and other missing people, in the center, in the Jerusalem area, and in the south. , of all the hundreds declared missing on October 7.
There were several other cases of the absence of people who, probably due to a mental and personal crisis under the influence of the war, were absent from their home.
Most of them were located several days later," said Ben Yaakov.
According to the commander of the canine unit, Mike Ben Yaakov, there is no substantial change in the profile of the missing. "This is a sweeping phenomenon that affects all populations regardless of socioeconomic status.
There are missing people who are programmers in high-tech companies or deputy managers in large companies who have gone missing, and there are also cases of missing people who are missing due to a personal, psychological crisis, the war.
Each person and his story," explains Ben Yaakov. "It is very easy to get lost in Israel.
It's a matter of minutes that a person can leave the house, the city, and reach open and wooded areas."
Ben Ya'akov also thinks there is a change for the better when it comes to searching for missing people. "Awareness has increased and there are more organizations and volunteers who help with this.
The police also take it more seriously.
Compared to other countries, where they wouldn't even bother to look, our situation is good.
But there are many gaps.
The state has technology and cameras, but there is no full coverage of the area and it is impossible to claim the entire area."
Mike Ben Yaakov, commander of the canine unit/Reuven Castro
Private investigators are also often asked to help locate missing people in Israel.
Gil Shmueli, a private investigator and volunteer at the "Beladiham" association, clarifies in a conversation with Walla that "my volunteering is limited. I provide any necessary telephone assistance and important recommendations, and further, those who want to hire my services I assist within the framework of the office, but this is very unusual, because most of the families of the missing They are from a low socioeconomic status and they cannot bear the costs of a private investigator."
According to Shmueli, every year there are thousands of inquiries about cases of disappearance.
"Most of them are found within a day or two. There are dozens of individual cases a year that usually involve girls that take a month to track down and there are another 15-20 cases a year, which is a lot, where a person leaves the house and is not found," explains Shmueli.
"There are cases where criminals are involved, who know that they were killed and buried somewhere and will probably never be found, and there are cases of elderly people, Alzheimer's patients who disappear and are not found, and you have a few cases like the case of the girl Heimnut Kassau. I hope that this is really, really unusual. I follow the issue It's been 10 years and I don't remember a similar case of the absence of children under such circumstances."
The search for Haymanut Cassau in Safed/Flash 90, David Cohen
Shmueli points out like others that in most cases there is less investment, but that can be understood.
"The police don't have enough resources and personnel. Huge efforts are being made in Kasao's case due to the unusual nature of the case, but you can't turn the whole world upside down on a 30-year-old man who left home, without a phone. If you had an investigator at every station who specializes in locating missing people, the situation might have been more professional At the national police headquarters there is an operative body that mainly guides operations, but it does not help on a practical level in locating missing people."
The Israel Police stated: "The manpower in the missing person squad in the investigation and intelligence division of the police has increased, but at the same time it is important to note that the squad is not the one that actually searches for the missing, but assists the district forces, among other things, in creating interfaces with the state authorities, establishing volunteer units to locate missing persons, creating Cooperation with other intelligence agencies and more.
About a year and a half ago, the police recruited a profiler for the missing persons unit, and his activity greatly assists the field units in missing persons cases as well.
In 2023, approximately 25,000 missing person cases were opened, of which approximately 5,000 investigation files were opened.
At the end of each year, there are between 6 and 12 missing persons who have not yet been located, and this indicates the strenuous activity of the police, using the utmost efforts and all the means available to the police, including the use of measures by the cyber unit 7100 of the police, which works to save the lives of missing people during emergencies."
More on the same topic:
absent
Israel Police
Zefat