A gag order had been imposed on the investigation into the disappearance of Mali and Liel Yahalomi in Austria, Israel Police announced on Thursday.
A judge approved a request by YALK, part of the Lahav 433 crime-fighting unit, to prohibit the publication of any details from the investigation.
Concern continues to grow for Yahalomi women
The Yahalomis have been missing in Vienna since Friday and failed to board their scheduled return flight from Prague on Tuesday night, as Austrian police continue investigating their disappearance on Wednesday.
The two did not arrive for their return flight, which was scheduled to depart Prague at 9:45 p.m.
According to the information available, the vacation apartment where they had been staying in Vienna was found empty of their belongings. Austrian police, the Israeli Embassy, and the city's Chabad community have reported that there are still no leads in the case.
Earlier, it was reported that police were examining all possibilities after reviewing videos and other footage showing the two leaving their hotel room on their own.
At a later stage, their phones were located in the vicinity of a Vienna train station. Their trail has since gone cold, raising suspicions that they may have been abducted.
Modi'in police questioned other members of the family, including the missing woman's son and daughter, her brother, and others, who said they last spoke with their mother and sister on Friday.
Israel Police investigated mother's involvement in embezzlement scheme
Israel Police on Wednesday examined claims that the mother, a senior employee at a bank, was allegedly behind an embezzlement scheme. That suspicion was ruled out in the initial investigation. Since no bloodstains or bodies have been found, suspicion has grown that the two deliberately fled and are currently in hiding for reasons that remain unclear.
Amir Rudnik, Mali Yahalomi's brother-in-law, spoke to 103FM on Wednesday and shared the latest information available to him about the disappearance.
"We don't have much information. We have a contact person at the Foreign Ministry situation room, and we also have a representative from the consulate in Vienna," Rudnik said.
"They've started checking, but so far there's nothing. They arrived in Vienna from Prague by train, spent the night between Friday and Saturday at an apartment hotel in Vienna, and their Google account shows that the phone was last seen in the area of a train station in Vienna."
Rudnik said the two had been on a regular mother-daughter trip, and that they come from a “normal, close-knit family.”
“We have a family WhatsApp group, we're in touch every day, and every member of the family shares experiences and photos. She's 50, and she's a banker. Her daughter is 23. Mali also has an older son. We know that the return flight, which was yesterday, was from Prague to Ben-Gurion Airport. They were supposed to return to Prague and fly back home in the evening,” he said.
The Israeli Embassy in Vienna issued an appeal on Wednesday for help locating the two Israeli citizens, mother and daughter Mali and Liel Yahalomi, after contact with them was lost on Friday, August 7. In a post published on social media, the embassy included photographs of the two and asked the public to share the notice and help locate them.