Police held a special meeting and comprehensive situation assessment on Wednesday evening regarding efforts to locate Mali and Liel Yahalomi, the Israeli citizens who disappeared in Vienna, the capital of Austria.
The meeting, led by Israel Police Commissioner Superintendent-General Danny Levy, was attended by the head of the Investigations and Intelligence Division, the head of the Intelligence Department, official Israel Police representatives stationed around the world, and members of the police intelligence command center operating abroad.
During the meeting, the commissioner was presented with a detailed and comprehensive review of the full range of investigative measures and intelligence operations currently being conducted both locally and internationally.
At the conclusion of the review, the commissioner ordered that all necessary means and resources, both in Israel and abroad, be made available and mobilized to advance the investigation and search efforts.
At the same time, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir spoke by telephone with members of the Yahalomi family. The minister offered them support during the difficult and tense period of uncertainty and informed them that police are deeply involved in the search efforts and are working in close cooperation with the local authorities and law enforcement agencies.
Ben Gvir told the family that he intends to personally follow and oversee the handling of the case. He also said he would speak with the relevant officials in the Foreign Ministry and Prime Minister’s Office to ensure that all government agencies are working simultaneously on the diplomatic level with the Austrian authorities.
“We are with you, concerned for you and embracing you. I will do everything in my power to help and, with God’s help, bring them home safe and sound," Ben Gvir said.
The search for Mali and Liel Yahalomi, who have been missing in Vienna since last Friday, is continuing in cooperation with security and law enforcement agencies in Israel and Austria. The two were scheduled to return to Israel last night on a flight from Prague but failed to show up for the flight, heightening concerns for their safety.
An Israel Police representative at Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, arrived in Vienna on Tuesday to assist in efforts to locate the two.
As part of checks carried out by Israel Police and local police, the phones belonging to the mother and daughter were located near a train station in the city last Saturday. The two observe a religious lifestyle, and the area around the station where the phones were located covers a large public space that also includes a park.
Family members filed a missing persons report at the Modi’in police station on Tuesday. Since then, police have been coordinating with Austria’s federal police, Mossad officials, the Foreign Ministry, and the Israeli Embassy in Vienna in an attempt to find a lead that could help locate them.
Hospitals in the area were also checked to determine whether the two might have been admitted as unidentified patients, but the checks produced no information leading to their whereabouts.
A police source told Haaretz that there is no known reason for the two women’s disappearance.
“This was a completely innocent trip. There is no reason whatsoever for them to disappear. We are employing every available means, together with all the relevant security agencies, in an effort to locate them," the source said.
Investigators also examined the possibility that the mother and daughter had been involved in a traffic accident. That possibility was ruled out after it emerged that the two had been traveling by train.
As part of the search, police entered the apartment where the two had been staying, but their belongings were no longer there, a detail that may indicate that they had left the apartment intending to continue their journey.