Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox extremists clashed with police in Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh on Monday night as they protested authorities’ plans to perform autopsies on the bodies of two babies who died in an overcrowded, unlicensed daycare center in the capital.
Police and the State Prosecutor’s Office are pushing for the autopsies in order to uncover the exact cause of death for 4-month old Leah Goloventzitz and 6-month-old Aharon Katz, whose bodies were found on Monday morning, along with 53 other babies and toddlers with varying degrees of injuries at the Haredi daycare center.
The autopsies would help police investigators confirm their working theory that the two babies died of heat exhaustion and dehydration linked to a faulty heating system in the illegal daycare, which operated out of several adjacent apartments on Ha’Mem Gimel Street in Jerusalem’s Haredi-majority Romema neighborhood.
The parents of the two deceased babies oppose the operations, as Orthodox Jews consider any tampering with a dead body a desecration, and the matter was brought before the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court. The judge ruled in favor of Israeli authorities on Thursday evening, but the babies’ parents, along with the ultra-Orthodox Zaka emergency servic,e said they planned to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, Israel Police said in a statement that officers responded to protests at the Shmuel Hanavi junction in Jerusalem, where protestors were causing disruptions, blocking roads, burning garbage bins, damaging vehicles and disrupting the lives of citizens. Police said the protesters also hampered the movement of public buses and damaged cars.
“After police declared the protest illegal, officers began dispersing the rioters who clashed with police,” the statement said, adding that the rioting was “endangering lives and could end with a serious tragedy.”
מכת”זית מעיפה ילד – שפוגע בגלגלי רכב: תיעוד מההפגנות בירושלים נגד נתיחת גופות התינוקות שמתו באסון בגן הילדים@HGoldich pic.twitter.com/iU93Pjylwb
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) January 19, 2026
Video posted to social media showed police using a water cannon against the protesters in Jerusalem, with one person — apparently a minor — seen knocked over by the jet and then thrust along the road into the wheels of a moving car. There were no immediate reports of injuries, however.
Garbage bins were also set ablaze in Nahar HaYarden Street in the nearby central city of Beit Shemesh. Police there used stun grenades and batons against the protesters, according to Hebrew media.
The protests took place after Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch, head of the rabbinical courts of the anti-Zionist Edah Haredit community, issued a directive to his supporters that there is “an obligation on each and every person to go out onto the city’s streets and protest against the autopsy and desecration of the dead.”
מאות חרדים מפגינים בירושלים ובבית שמש נגד נתיחת גופות הפעוטות שמתו באסון המעון בעיר@daniel_grovais pic.twitter.com/Ym7226TAOH
— גלצ (@GLZRadio) January 19, 2026
Protest organizers reportedly announced plans to hold subsequent demonstrations on Tuesday.
Police said they detained three caregivers at the daycare for questioning.
Emergency services arrived at the daycare on Monday morning after receiving an alert from the center about an infant girl, Goloventzitz, who was unresponsive and did not have a pulse.
Upon their arrival at the daycare, medical teams were presented with Katz, the baby boy, also unresponsive and in critical condition.
The two were rushed to Hadassah Hospital and the Shaare Zedek Medical Center while undergoing CPR, but were pronounced dead upon arrival.
According to the ultra-Orthodox Behadrei Haredim news site, Monday was the first day that one of the deceased babies attended the daycare.
מזרונים בשירותים, תיעוד מהצפיפות במעון הפרטי בו אירע האסון בירושלים ???????? pic.twitter.com/ogn0R2OFXx
— שילה פריד???????? (@shilofreid) January 19, 2026
At the same time, teams from the Israel Police and the Fire and Rescue Service worked to evacuate the remaining 53 children from the daycare, all of whom were exhibiting varying symptoms of respiratory distress.
The number of babies entrusted to the daycare was not immediately clear to rescue services, one United Hatzalah member told Ynet, and only became apparent while they were performing CPR on the two infants and began hearing cries from inside the apartment complex.
“We heard children screaming, we went in and checked, and what did we find? That there were children in closets, in strollers, everywhere, hidden on top of one another with blankets,” he said.
The National Council for the Child, in a statement issued as the incident unfolded, demanded an immediate investigation by the Israel Police and Education Ministry into “not only the serious negligence, but the issue of the daycare’s operating license, as well.”
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