Baby Dies After Circumcision at Jerusalem Hospital; Police Open Probe

Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital in Jerusalem said on Saturday evening that a baby died after being brought there following a circumcision in a settlement in the Binyamin area. Police opened an investigation, and the body was sent to the National Institute of Forensic Medicine for an official opinion on the cause and circumstances of death.

The hospital said the infant, 8 days old, arrived on Friday without a pulse and while Magen David Adom paramedics were already performing resuscitation. Doctors continued the resuscitation attempts in the pediatric emergency department, but were unable to save him and pronounced him dead.

The case comes about a month after mohel Moshe Drai of Bnei Brak was released from custody, after being suspected of negligent manslaughter in the death of another baby who died about two months after a circumcision he performed. During hearings on the extension of Drai’s detention, police said they had taken testimony from Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu about additional cases in which parents of minors claimed Drai harmed their children.