A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after his wife and two young sons were found stabbed to death in a Galilee town Saturday. A neighbor’s son was also killed in the incident.
The victims were named as Dor Sela (Karsenti), 23, her two children Binyamin (8 months) and Yosef (20 months); the neighbor’s son was identified as Nahman Atia, 5.
The woman’s husband, Nadav Sela, 28, was arrested soon after the bodies were discovered. He was found in a field outside their hometown of Migdal, near Tiberias.
Another child, Nahman Atia’s 8-year-old brother, was also found stabbed near the Selas’ home. He was airlifted to a Haifa hospital, where his condition was described as serious but stable.
Paramedics who were among the first to arrive at the apartment described finding a “shocking” scene, and said they found Dor Sela and three children already dead.
According to the paramedics, the 8-year-old was found conscious outside the apartment and received initial care before being evacuated.
Trauma doctors at Rambam Medical Center, Haifa, said he had suffered knife wounds around his face and neck, and would undergo surgery.
Dor Sela is the 120th Israeli woman to be murdered by a family member since 2011.
A relative of the deceased woman described the couple as “lovebirds” who were both natives of Migdal. They married a few years ago and became religious together.
“There was no warning” for the incident, the relative said, adding that Dor Sela had seemed happy and had “found her place.”
A Migdal resident said he saw Nadav Sela walking down the street about an hour after the suspected murder, “white as a sheet.
He saw us and hung his head.”
A few minutes later, the resident and others heard the police sirens. “We put two and two together,” the man added.
Another family relative, who said the family had lived with Dor Sela’s father, also said there were no warning signs.
A neighbor and friend of Dor Sela said she “never would have guessed that [Nadav] was capable of something like that.”
But a relative of Dor Sela said he had been at school with the suspect, who had been a “bad boy.”
He had become Orthodox, and then he “calmed down and looked like an angel,” he added.
