The Israel Police’s crisis negotiation unit aided the Romanian police on Friday in ending a 30-hour hostage crisis in Bucharest involving a young child.

The incident began on Thursday morning when amid a family dispute, a Romanian man in his 40s barricaded himself in his home with his 5-year-old daughter and threatened to blow up his house with fuel tanks and gas canisters.

After the Romanian police chief contacted the Israel Police’s attaché to Romania for assistance, members of the Israeli crisis negotiation unit flew to Bucharest and established a command room with psychologists, officials from the police foreign relations department, researchers, volunteers, and officials from the overseas operations unit.

One of the motivating factors that led the Romanians to turn to the Israeli police was a previous case with very similar circumstances when a father barricaded himself in his home with three of his children. Tragically, despite the Romanian negotiation team expending their maximum efforts, the incident ended with the father murdering his children and taking his own life.

The Israeli team members succeeded in contacting the disgruntled father’s lawyer and instructed him on how to approach and speak to his client. After 30 hours of negotiations, the lawyer entered the house and managed to convince the father to release his daughter and surrender himself to the police.

Following the successful outcome, the Romanian chief of police thanked the Israel Police attaché: “My friend, thank you very much! Please send my best wishes to the Israeli team. They helped us a lot. Real professionals!”

The entire dramatic event was broadcast live on Romanian television stations. The Israeli team members advised the Romanians on how to deal with the possibility that the suspect was watching the broadcasts.

The head of the police operations department, Deputy Commissioner Sigal Bar-Tzvi, praised the work of the unit: “The Israel Police is prepared to provide assistance to other police forces around the world as much as it is requested. Our negotiation unit is recognized in the international field as an elite unit and this is not the first time that it has been in demand for assistance outside the country’s borders.”

The police stated: “The Israel Police’s crisis negotiations unit handles complex and challenging incidents during which they focus on the human factor causing the incident with the aim of saving human lives. The unit’s knowledge and extensive operational experience have been of assistance during world crises involving terror, armed incidents, kidnappings, extortions, assistance in locating missing people, and more.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)