Man Charged with Murdering 7-Year-Old Boy Playing in Pool

A 26-year-old resident of Beit Shemesh, Liel Ifargan, has been indicted for murder with aggravating circumstances and attempted murder. Ifargan is accused of fatally stabbing 7-year-old Hillel Mordechai Dadon and wounding his cousin while the two boys were playing in a backyard pool.

The indictment, filed by the Jerusalem District Prosecutor's Office, details that the incident occurred last month in the afternoon. The two children were playing in an inflatable pool in the yard when Ifargan, who lives in an adjacent housing unit, allegedly emerged with a knife. He entered the yard, approached the pool, and stabbed Hillel in the chest and his cousin in the neck, with the intent to kill.

Following the attack, Ifargan reportedly fled back to his unit and cleaned the knife. Hillel sustained a severe chest wound that proved fatal. His cousin suffered a neck wound, experienced active bleeding, underwent surgery, and was hospitalized for three days.

The prosecution is requesting that the court order Ifargan's detention until the legal proceedings are concluded. The prosecutor's office stated, "We share in the deep sorrow of Hillel Mordechai Dadon's family and wish for the full recovery of his cousin. It is difficult to grasp the gap between the innocent game of two children in a pool and the defendant's decision to arm himself with a knife and take their lives. The indictment filed today expresses the exceptional severity of the acts attributed to the defendant and the severe and irreversible outcome they led to."