Nearly six months after the disappearance of nine-year-old Hymanut Kassou, new details about the case were revealed on Wednesday during a meeting of the Knesset Aliyah and Integration Committee.
During the meeting, a Channel 13 reporter played a recording in which a search volunteer is heard telling the commander of the Tzfat police station about an unusual incident that she heard about from a friend of Hymanut's. "A few days before Hymanut's disappearance, they tried to kidnap her and her friend. They went to the security guard and that's how it ended. They decided not to tell anyone since the children in the neighborhood have a culture of silence and are afraid.
"The volunteer, as a good citizen, did what was needed for the police to investigate the matter. She obtained the Tzfat station commander's number. In a conversation between the two, she says: 'I was at the search that Thursday, I met a girl who spoke to me and told me that there's a man who before Hymanut disappeared spoke to her. I wrote everything she said down and gave it to an officer who took it to the investigations."
Hymanut's father, Tesfai, told the committee about a testimony of her friend, who claims to have almost been kidnapped with her. He noted that her friend said that "a man with long side curls lifted her by the shoulder and ran away with her." The father said that the man also attempted to kidnap the friend, but she managed to get away.
MK Pnina Tamano-Shata demanded from the police representatives at the meeting that the police reexamine the girl's friend's testimony.