Preschool (illustrative)
Preschool (illustrative)iStock

The owner of a Ramle preschool in which four assistants are accused of abusing children in their care, has been released to house arrest following a police interrogation, Israel Police said Friday.

According to Israel Hayom, accusations against the four assistants include slapping the children, tying them to chairs, hitting them with objects, and a "game" in which the assistants competed to see who could throw packages of wipes at the children's heads.

These accusations were made after one of the parents, who had installed cameras in the preschool at the request of the site's owners, arrived to fix an issue and watched the surveillance history. The parent took the footage and sent it to the other parents, after which it was decided to contact the police.

According to attorneys Yaron Forer and Moshe Algali, the two assistants first arrested have denied the charges leveled against them.

The attorneys also said that the hidden cameras were installed without the preschool owner's knowledge and constitute a breach of privacy, since they were installed in violation of the law prohibiting listening in to others' conversations without their knowledge.

However, the preschool's owners claimed they did not know anything about the assistants' actions, that they had allowed the cameras to be installed and that the installation was done with their approval. The owners also said the assistants knew about the cameras' existence.

On Thursday morning, all four assistants were brought before the Rishon Lezion Magistrates Court, and the results of the investigation were presented to the court. Among other things, interrogators said that the assistants invented a "game" to see who could hit the children's heads with packages of wipes, and this "game" was filmed.

Also on Thursday, the court extended the assistants' arrests by five days.

All of the assistants are suspected of attacking a helpless minor, and all deny the charge.