Police Arrest Netivot Mother Suspected of Raping Two Sons

Police on Tuesday arrested a mother of eight from Netivot for allegedly raping two of her sons, aged 8 and 11.

The suspect, a 38-year-old religious woman, confessed to sexually abusing the older of the two children, and has been brought in front of a Magistrates Court judge in Be'er Sheva for her remand to be extended.

Police say the suspect and her husband were divorced, and the children were removed from their home last year by a court's injunction after social workers found the mother to be mentally unstable.

The 11-year-old boy was consequently placed in a boarding school in Bnei Brak, where he is said to have exhibited inappropriate sexual behavior. The school's social worker said he told her that his mother forced him into having sexual intercourse on one of his visits home.

The information was passed on to Netivot's social services officials who decided to discontinue the boy's visits, and notified the police.

The welfare officials on Tuesday said the case was passed on to the police over a month ago, and that they were baffled as to why the mother was arrested only now.

This case is one of many cases with serious allegations of child abuse to have shocked Israelis over the past week, as a Haredi woman from Beit Shemesh was also indicted with charges of severe sexual and physical abuse of her 12 children.