Israeli murders wife in Lod, second femicide in two weeks in city

A 53-year-old woman was found dead on Sunday in her home on Hanasi Road in Lod. The police opened an investigation and arrested her husband, Moshe Attias, 58, on suspicion of having murdered her.

At the hearing in Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court, the judge prolonged his detention by another five days. He is also going to be given a psychiatric examination.

The police were able to locate Attias, who had initially fled the scene, in a crashed vehicle after hitting a police car near his home. The couple has three grown children, and the police have no record of any previous criminal issue having to do with the family.

Paramedics Assaf Dorman and Shir Hever told the media: “When we arrived on the scene, we saw the woman lying unconscious inside the apartment. She had no pulse and was not breathing. There were signs of violence, and after an examination, we pronounced her dead.”

According to a preliminary investigation, Attias hit his wife in the head with dumbbells and immediately called the police to confess to what he had done. He then fled the home and was caught a short time later.

The issue of femicide in Israel

This is the second femicide in Lod within a few days. Last week, 33-year-old Lidar Swissa was murdered by her neighbor Yaakov Chaimovitz. He had threatened her a number of times before killing her, and she even filed an official complaint but nothing was done.

Following the recent murders, women’s organizations have criticized the government for neglecting the personal safety of women in their homes. A representative of the International Women’s Network, Hadas Danieli Yadlin, appealed to the government saying: “Another... murder of a woman by her partner.... This is the second woman murdered in the last week. Twenty-two women were murdered last year, and everything is [business as usual]. Unfortunately, the Israeli government’s stubborn refusal to sign the international convention for the prevention of violence against women does not allow the promotion of programs... to eradicate the phenomenon.”

Labor MK Naama Lazimi said: “Another woman was murdered just because she is a woman. There is not much to rave about. There is no house to seal. There is no legal counsel to blame. No pita bread to take. There is [just] the reality of gender-based murder, which does not interest the national security minister.”