Bnei Brak - Missing Hareidi Youth Found Dead

The body of a 17-year-old hareidi youth who had gone missing Saturday evening was found Monday morning in a grove on Hatzvi street, in Bnei Brak's Kiryat Herzog neighborhood.

It is not yet known if the youth was the victim of a criminal assault.

The search for the youth began Saturday evening. Police and volunteers from rescue organizations looked for him but did not find anything until investigators succeeded in pinpointing the location of his cell phone.

The phone was found to be located in Bnei Brak, not far from the Ayalon Shopping Mall.

"He was last seen on motzaei Shabbat [the evening hours of Saturday, after the sun sets and Shabbat ends – ed.], that was when they saw him last,” Ihud Hatzala volunteer Efi Feldman said Monday. “Last night we began initial searches and this morning we went out in large forces because they began to fear for his life.”

A large situation room was set up near the Ayalon shopping center for coordinating the search, and the Dan Precinct Police's jeep unit and mounted police unit fanned out to search for the youth.

Dozens of Ihud Hatzala paramedics in ambulances as on motorcycles also combed the area, until the body was found.