Police opened an investigation on Monday into the suspected rape of a 9-year-old boy at the Holon country club.
The boy's mother filed a police complaint over the weekend, saying the incident took place on Wednesday when she sent her son to take a shower in the club's locker room and then reported seeing the boy leaving the shower with a stranger in his 50s or 60s ten minutes later.
In an online forum of Holon residents, the mother wrote that when she asked her son what happened, he said that an older man walked with him into the showers, put a hand across his mouth and told him that if he says anything – it will be "very bad."
"From a mother's pain and out of concern for privacy I will not go into more details, but I am sure you can imagine this horror scenario," she wrote, adding that she shared this story in order to prevent further such incidents from happening again.
It was reported that the mother arrived at the country club's management offices immediately after the event and managed to find out the identity of the man through security camera footage of him walking out of the showers.
Since there are no cameras inside the showers for the sake of privacy, there was no recording of the incident – and at this stage, the investigation is relying on the child's testimony.
The child has yet to be questioned by a juvenile investigator due to a nationwide social workers' strike over working conditions.
The suspect was interrogated by police and later released under restrictions and barred from the country club for the next two weeks.