A nine-year-old girl from Tzfas has been missing since Sunday evening and fears for her safety are growing as hundreds of police officers and volunteers continue to search for her.

Haymanut Kasau, 9, has lived in an absorption center in Tzfas since making made aliyah with her family from Ethiopia three years ago.

On Sunday evening, she failed to return home after spending time with her friends outside the center distributing municipal election pamphlets. Her family called the police, who examined security camera footage which showed the last footage of her at 7:45 p.m. on Sunday evening. Police officers thoroughly searched the absorption center and the surrounding area but no clues were found.

The search has continued ever since, with hundreds of police officers and volunteers from various organizations participating in the effort.

Police suspect that she may have been snatched by a child molester and are monitoring people in the area who have committed previous offenses.

Aaron Strycher, a spokesperson for the Israel Dog Unit (IDU), one of the organizations aiding in the search, told Arutz Sheva: “As the search goes on, the concerns get stronger. There is no proof that she left the absorption center and she hasn’t been seen since. We have no other leads as to what happened to her.”

“Two hours after the Israel Police were contacted to help find her, the police contacted other volunteer organizations, including the Israel Dog Unit, which began searching. This is one of the largest searches in which we have participated in recent years. We assigned this incident supreme importance because the victim is only a nine-year-old girl who disappeared one evening. No such thing has happened in recent years. The police are of course involved in investigations. We are involved in searching the city around the absorption center, but there is a lot of undeveloped land around it.”

‘”There are thousands of searchers at work, including civilians from every part of Israel, members of the Ethiopian community, and others who came to help find the girl as fast as possible, because the threat level is getting higher. This is a race against time.”

“I am currently in the Meron forest because the police have decided to expand the search to here as well. We are searching for any sign that could help solve this mystery,” he said, adding that parents in the area are extremely worried due to other unsolved incidents in the region involving children.

“There are parents who fear to send their children to school, which is another reason that we cannot leave a case like this unsolved. We must reach her, if only to allay these fears, which are at least partially justified. As far as we are concerned, all options are open, and as long as we have not heard otherwise we are assuming she is alive.”

Police are asking for the public’s help in locating her. Anyone who knows anything about her whereabouts is asked to contact the Israel Police hotline 100 or the Tzfas Police Department at 04-6978444.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)