Lost Haredi 3-year-old found alone at West Bank bus terminal overnight

Child, who only speaks Yiddish, reunited with family on Monday morning; parents ferrying 11 kids reportedly say they mistakenly got off bus without him, suspected of child neglect

Police found an ultra-Orthodox child by himself at a West Bank bus terminal in the early hours of Monday, after apparently being mistakenly left behind by his parents.

The boy, about 3 years old, was found at a bus terminal near the Jerusalem-area Qalandiya checkpoint at around 2 a.m. He spoke only Yiddish, making it difficult for authorities to communicate with him, police said.

His parents were finally located late Monday morning and questioned by police at the station.

They are residents of Modi’in Illit, a Haredi settlement in the West Bank.

According to the Walla news site, the parents told police they had returned late at night from a family event on organized buses, and the child had not gotten off the bus with the rest of his family.

The news site said the parents have 11 children, and they told police they’d searched for the missing child all night, though police did not receive any report of a missing child.

The parents were being investigated on suspicion of negligence and child neglect, the report said, but were expected to be released at the end of their questioning.

According to police, an employee at the bus terminal noticed the boy and called the police.

Local police and Border Police officers responded before dawn and took the child to a Neve Yaakov-area police station.