2 babies dead, 53 injured in daycare disaster in Jerusalem

Two infants dead and dozens more hospitalized in Jerusalem as authorities probe cause of death at unauthorized daycare center operating out of an apartment building.

By World Israel News Staff

Two infants were killed and 53 injured in an incident at an unauthorized private daycare center in Jerusalem on Monday.

Emergency first responders from Magen David Adom and United Hatzalah were dispatched to an apartment building in the predominantly ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Romema Monday afternoon, after the operators of the daycare noticed the children had difficulty breathing.

Paramedics who arrived at the scene found that two four-month-old infants were unresponsive and rushed them to Shaare Zedek Medical Center and Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital while attempting to resuscitate them. Both infants were declared dead upon arrival.

“This is a difficult incident,” said MDA paramedics Nadav Tayeb and Yair Aba Shaul. “We were called to the scene to treat a four-month-old infant girl who was found unconscious, without a pulse and not breathing at a daycare center.”

“We began providing life-saving medical treatment, including resuscitation efforts, and evacuated her to the hospital. We were then called back to the scene to treat another infant who was unconscious, without a pulse and not breathing,” he said.

“We dispatched large numbers of MDA responders to the scene, who arrived in ambulances and mobile intensive care units, and we began evacuating all of the infants who were present at the location.”

Medical teams examined the other 53 infants before evacuating them to local hospitals for further assessment.

“Dozens of infants and children were present in the building,” said MDA volunteer physician Dr. Menachem Estrik.

“We began conducting searches and medical examinations of the infants and children who were at the scene, while placing them into MDA ambulances and mobile intensive care units and evacuating them to hospitals in the city for further medical treatment.”

The cause of the deaths remains unclear, with fire and rescue teams initially suspecting a toxic gas leak.

Later, authorities issued a statement ruling out the possibility of a leak, claiming that testing of the daycare center had found no traces of harmful chemicals.

According to an official from the Environmental Protection Ministry, the cause of death was likely food poisoning.

“There was no gas leak. It was probably in the food,” the inspector said, The Jerusalem Post reported.

However, other reports suggested that a chemical leak had not been definitively ruled out.

Several media outlets claimed that authorities suspect the infants’ lungs were impacted by a leak from the heating system, noting that the facility lacks proper ventilation.

Other reports claimed that suspicion has fallen on the use of open flames to heat the facility, with no air coming in, depriving the children of oxygen.

Jerusalem district police detained three employees of the daycare for questioning.