The parents of a haredi teenager who was seriously injured after a metal bar hit her on the head near a construction site have called on police to probe whether the incident was in fact an accident, or may have been intentional.
Last Thursday, 15-year-old Tehilla Zino was struck in the head when a metal bar fell from a construction site near the entrance of her school in Jerusalem.
Zino was evacuated in a semi-conscious state in moderate condition to Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center in the capital. After arriving in the hospital, however, her condition was listed as very serious.
Police detained ten workers at the site for questioning amid suspicions the accident may have been the result of criminal negligence.
The workers were later released.
On Monday, reporters spoke with Zino’s parents, Avraham and Yael Zino, just before they entered the Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center’s intensive care unit to visit their daughter, who remains in serious condition and is unconscious and on assisted breathing.
Zino’s parents told reporters that they believe the incident was not an accident, but a deliberate attack, possibly nationalistically motivated.
Avraham Zino urged police to take seriously the possibility that the incident was in fact a nationalistic attack, rather than an accident.
“They need to keep investigating,” Avraham Zino said. “In my heart, I know that this was nationalistically motivated.”
Avraham Zino noted that the suspects detained in the case had harassed girls from his daughter’s school as they made their way to and from the seminary. He also pointed out that witnesses reported that the metal bar which struck his daughter appeared to have been thrown.
The victim’s father also claimed that none of the construction crew or their representatives were able to prove that the incident was in fact an accident.
