A heavily pregnant woman in her early 20s was stabbed to death Thursday morning in the Ramot Eshkol neighborhood of the central city of Lod. Her unborn baby did not survive.
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Magen David Adom emergency services reported receiving a call at 8:05am regarding a young woman who had been stabbed in Lod. First responders who arrived at the scene transported her to Shamir-Asaf Harofe Medical Center in critical condition with multiple penetrating traumas. Doctors pronounced her dead upon arrival at the hospital.
The hospital added that it performed an emergency cesarean section in an attempt to save the fetus, but it did not survive.
The emergency team responding to the call reported encountering "a lot of commotion around the injured woman, who lay unconscious and suffering from penetrating wounds."
"We immediately administered medical treatment and began advanced resuscitation efforts, including chest compressions combined with artificial ventilation. We quickly transported her to the hospital in an intensive care ambulance while continuing resuscitation efforts, as her condition was critical."
Several hours after the incident, the police reported the arrest of two of the woman's family members, residents of Lod and a Bedouin community in southern Israel, for their alleged involvement in her fatal stabbing.
The incident was captured in graphic detail by a nearby surveillance camera. The footage shows the young mother walking down the street with two small children when a knife-wielding assailant wearing a hoodie suddenly lunges at her from behind. After the pregnant woman trips, the attacker continues to stab her a total of 16 times. The children, witnessing the attack in horror, then run away as the assailant flees the scene in a car.