Israeli police on Wednesday raided targets in Yavniel, in the Lower Galilee, and detained for questioning several Breslov Hasidim, including a number of minors, on suspicion that they had married in recent months inside the local community. Police said the investigation is continuing and more arrests are expected.
According to the Northern District police and Border Police, dozens of officers carried out the open phase of a covert probe that had been running for months into illegal child marriages within the closed community. Investigators say they uncovered a pattern in which the weddings were usually held in the morning, with only a small number of people present, and the location was hidden until the last minute to prevent photography and block phones from being brought in.
Police said that after the religious ceremony, a wider event is often held under the cover of an "engagement party," allowing relatives of the bride and groom to attend. In February, acting on real-time intelligence, Northern District detectives raided one such morning wedding in a house in the village and found the couple dressed as bride and groom. A search of the building turned up a marriage contract, wedding rings and a cup wrapped in aluminum foil inside a water-meter cabinet.
As part of the case, investigators obtained court orders to gather information from hospitals in northern Israel. Those steps led them to more than 20 cases over the past three years in which girls from the community gave birth, while Interior Ministry records still listed them as unmarried at the time of delivery.
