Police detained 16 minors and adults in Yavne’el on Thursday over suspected involvement in illegal child marriages, marking the second major operation in the Lower Galilee town in three months.
Dozens of officers raided several locations after investigators received information indicating that minors had recently married, or that concrete preparations had begun for illegal wedding ceremonies, police said.
The adults questioned were described as members of the minors’ immediate circles.
The raid followed an operation in June in which more than 20 people were questioned over suspected involvement in arranging, conducting, and concealing underage marriages within what police described as a small, closed community centered in Yavne’el.
According to police, the ceremonies are generally held in the morning with few participants. Locations are withheld until shortly before the ceremony, while phones and photography are prohibited to prevent documentation.
In many cases, police said, the religious ceremony is followed by a larger gathering presented publicly as an engagement party, which is not prohibited by law.
The methods make it difficult for investigators to establish that a marriage took place, particularly when there is no photographed ceremony, signed ketubah, or witness willing to give evidence.
During an earlier operation, officers found a young couple dressed as a bride and groom and recovered a ketubah, wedding rings, and a foil-wrapped glass hidden inside a water-system cabinet, according to police.
Israeli law generally prohibits marriage before the age of 18. A family court may grant permission from age 16 in exceptional circumstances when it finds that marriage is in the minor’s interests.
Absent such permission, adults who marry a minor, officiate or assist with the marriage, or cause their child to marry can face up to two years in prison.
The central problem exposed in Yavne’el is the difficulty of detecting the ceremonies, protecting the minors involved, and producing evidence that can support criminal charges.
The Yavne’el investigation comes amid evidence of wider failures in the enforcement of Israel’s Marriage Age Law.
A May report by the Knesset Research and Information Center identified substantial, unexplained gaps between government records. The Population and Immigration Authority said it referred 128 suspected cases to police in 2023, 95 in 2024 and 98 in 2025. Police, however, reported receiving 23 complaints from all sources in 2023, including seven from the authority, and 15 in 2024.
Those discrepancies have raised questions about whether information held by hospitals, schools, welfare departments, religious institutions, and the Population Authority reaches police early enough to prevent underage marriages rather than investigate them after the fact.
Yesh Atid MK Meirav Cohen, who chairs the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality, arrived uninvited at a Yavne’el Local Council meeting on Wednesday, one day before the police operation.
Cohen said she went to the meeting after council head Snir Arish failed to attend parliamentary hearings or participate in a committee visit to the town.
She accused the council and its welfare department of failing to protect children and alleged that boys and girls continued to be married under pressure within the community.
The council has previously rejected accusations of inaction. Arish said in July that the municipality continuously assisted law-enforcement authorities and that its welfare department provided daily support to affected residents.
Questions have also been raised about educational oversight after a school principal in Yavne’el was summoned for a hearing over allegations that she had arranged marriages for her daughters while they were minors but remained in her position as the school year began.
The principal denied that an illegal marriage had taken place, saying that an event documented in media reports was a traditional henna ceremony and that her daughter would not marry before turning 18.
The Education Ministry said in August that it was examining the matter and would act according to its findings and legal authority.
Police said Thursday that the investigation would continue in cooperation with other enforcement and welfare authorities.