Judea and Samaria District Police suspect their investigation into the rape of a 5-year-old girl in the ultra-Orthodox city of Modiin Illit is being deliberately hampered by rabbis who ordered all involved parties, including the victim's parents, not to cooperate with police. As a result, police have still not identified a suspect.

The incident took place last week. According to information gathered so far, the girl was attacked by a haredi youth, apparently from an established family in the city, while she was walking to kindergarten. Police suspect the youth forcefully took the girl to a room, possibly the storage room of a nearby synagogue, and committed indecent acts and possibly rape. The suspect then released the girl and sent her battered and bruised to her kindergarten. When the girl's teachers noticed the bruises on the girl they called her parents and took her to the hospital.

But according to Israel Radio, neither the school nor the parents filed a complaint with police out of fear that the city's rabbis would ostracise them. The incident only came to light when a local journalist called up the Judea and Samaria Police spokesperson after hearing rumors of the rape of a little girl. The police spokesman said that no complaint had been filed, but promised to look into the incident.

When investigators began looking into the incident, they were met with a wall of silence. Those few who did agree to speak told police that the girl had been taken to the emergency room of a hospital in central Israel, but refused to divulge her details. The law requires hospitals to report sexual assaults, and investigators sought a court order to force the hospital to give them the victim’s details. But the presiding judge denied the request and ordered the investigators to find the parents and get permission from them first. However, police cannot contact the parents as they do not know the identity of the victim.

Police in Modiin Illit have compiled enough information to deduce the neighborhood in which they believe the incident took place. They have questioned numerous people in the community, but those questioned claimed to not know anything about the event.