Man arrested on suspicion of attacking wife with ax in front of their daughters

A 54-year-old man was arrested Saturday on suspicion of attacking his wife with an ax in front of the couple’s daughters.

The 47-year-old woman was taken to Beilinson Hospital in moderate condition.

According to the Ynet news site, the two daughters attempted to defend their mother against the attack at the family home in the central city of Petah Tikva.

One of the daughters was lightly injured but did not require hospitalization.

Sources close to the investigation said that the mother was “miraculously saved.”

The man is set to appear at Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court for a hearing on Sunday.

Activists have long complained that not enough is done to prevent violence against women in Israel, particularly in cases known to the authorities.

In November, Transportation Minister Merav Michaeli, who also chairs a ministerial committee on gender equality, announced the allocation of NIS 155 million (approximately $45 million) for a national plan to combat violence against women.

According to a report published by researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in January, there were 16 cases of women murdered in Israel by a relative or a partner throughout 2021, and 21 cases in 2020.

Recent cases include a woman in her 50s who was found dead in an apartment in the coastal city of Ashdod and her husband was later arrested; a 62-year-old woman who was stabbed to death in the northern city of Kiryat Ata earlier this month, with her son arrested as the primary suspect; a 30-year-old man from Lod who last month confessed to killing his 60-year-old mother; and a 26-year-old woman who was found dead in an apartment in Ramat Gan in January, with her 32-year-old partner arrested by police on suspicion of her murder.