Police announced after midnight overnight Monday that the owner of the Romema daycare and a babysitter—where two babies died on Monday—were arrested.

After their initial questioning following the tragic incident, the police decided to keep them in custody overnight.

The two were brought to the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, where the police asked to extend their detention by six days.

A police representative said at the hearing, “I was present yesterday at the scene, and I was shaken by what I saw. This is a private apartment that has been operated as a daycare for years illegally. From what I saw, there is evident neglect, with no basic conditions whatsoever for operating such a sensitive place.”

The court refused the police request for six days but agreed to extend the suspects’ arrest until Thursday.

The ZAKA organization submitted an appeal to the Supreme Court following the Magistrate’s Court decision on Monday evening approving autopsies of the babies to determine the cause of death.

Shnir Elmaliach, a representative of the ZAKA legal department, represented the families during the hearing. After the judge issued the ruling, one of the babies’ fathers fainted in the courtroom.

Following the lower court’s decision to approve the autopsies despite the opposition of the families, ZAKA released a statement, saying, “Following the decision, ZAKA’s legal department announced that it would appeal to the Supreme Court, seeking to exhaust every legal avenue to protect the kavod of the babies and minimize harming them as much as possible.”

The hearing is scheduled to take place at 3 p.m. before a panel of justices Alex Stein, Ruth Ronen, and Yechiel Kasher.

The head of ZAKA, explained in an interview with Ynet: “The cause of death is also important halachically. It is relevant, but we are not sure that an autopsy at the moment will add to the findings regarding the cause of death beyond what is currently established. There are enough means today, including technological ones, that can, in our opinion, determine the cause of death. And that is all we are asking, to exhaust the maximum possible and that the family be heard for the sake of the kavod of the deceased.”

The coordinator of ZAKA’s legal department, Michael Guttwein, told Kan News, “In this case, an autopsy is unnecessary. There are shattered parents here to whom they’re stabbing another knife in their hearts. We hope that the Supreme Court will have mercy on the parents and allow them to live in peace.”

ZAKA proposed a compromise: that the infants undergo non-invasive toxicological tests that could reveal the cause of death. However, since the results would only be available in weeks or months, the judge rejected the proposal.

During the night, large protests against the autopsies broke out in Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh, and the protests resumed on Tuesday.

An extremely disturbing incident occurred during the protest in Jerusalem, with a video distributed by the police showing protesters violently shoving an older man who tried to clear stones they placed on the street.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)