Israeli Sisters Meli and Liel Yahalomi Not Detained in Namibia

Meli and Liel Yahalomi are expected to land at Ben Gurion Airport on Wednesday afternoon on a flight from Athens, after reports of their arrest in Namibia were clarified as incorrect. Earlier on Wednesday, Israeli police were informed by their representative in Africa that the two sisters had been detained in Namibia on suspicion of possessing forged passports. However, it later emerged that the arrested individuals were two other women.

The confusion was partly cleared up by Rabbi Yosef Rahimi, a Chabad emissary in Namibia, who went to the police station to assist the detainees after being told they were Meli and Liel. "I brought food and water to the mother and daughter, thinking it was Liel and Meli," he said. "I arrived at the police station and it turns out it wasn't them. I saw them physically, it's not them."

Rahimi told mako that the arrested women were an Iranian mother and daughter, aged 14 and around 40, who were holding forged Israeli passports. He stated, "They didn't know a word of Hebrew, they spoke to me a little in English and Persian, and these are not Meli and Liel Yahalomi." According to him, these two were the only women the local police identified as Israeli citizens due to the forged Israeli passports they possessed.

Meanwhile, Meli and Liel themselves are en route to Israel and are scheduled to land in the afternoon from Athens. The sisters previously made headlines about two months ago when contact was lost with them during their stay in Vienna, and they were reported missing. A week later, they were located by an Israeli police representative in Argentina, questioned, and released as no suspicion of criminal activity was found against them at that time.