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Israel police on Monday said it was investigating a possible abduction of two little girls in the country on vacation from the United States, by their mother who is involved in a custody battle with the girls' father. Ofer Goldsmith reported them missing and that all contact with his daughters was severed. "I've never gone this long without seeing my girls," the father an Israeli national, said. "I am very concerned for their safety."
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The police said that they detained the grandmother, a 70-year-old resident of Gedera in the south and appealed to the public to report any knowledge of the girls' – eight-year old Liba and 12-year-old Sara - whereabouts.
The parents, who both live in the U.S., have joint custody of the girls since their divorce. The mother arrived with her daughters for a family vacation in Israel, and according to the decision of a Pennsylvania court, was to allow the girls to talk on the phone with their dad, once every day and transfer them to his care 10 days into their trip, after he too arrived.
He said he had planned a trip to the north where his family lives and received a message from the older of the two girls last Monday, informing him that their mother plans to "kidnap" them. He presented a screenshot of the message to the police. "She is going to buy a wig so that she could not be recognized," the girl said.
Goldsmith then notified the police arrived at the grandmother's house that same evening but were met with a denial that the girls were there. By Tuesday, all contact with the girls stopped.
The parents who met and married in Israel, moved to the States ten years ago, where the two girls were born. This was the first overseas trip taken by them since the divorce and was planned according to strict instructions from the courts.