Forty-nine-year-old Ina Danilov was stabbed to death early Monday morning in her home in Pardes Hanna, in what police are investigating as a domestic homicide. Her husband, a man in his 50s, was arrested on suspicion of murder and remains in custody.
Police said the initial investigation indicates the killing stemmed from a family dispute. The victim’s daughter, in her early 20s, was the one who alerted emergency services shortly before 4 a.m., while she and her 10-year-old brother were inside the apartment at the time of the attack. Paramedics who arrived at the scene found Danilov without signs of life and suffering from multiple stab wounds and pronounced her dead at the scene.
The couple has five children, four adults, and one minor. The suspect was detained following a search in the area, after initially fleeing the apartment. His detention was extended by the court for several days.
According to police and court records, the family had prior contact with welfare authorities. Danilov filed complaints against her husband in 2017 and 2018, which were investigated and later closed by the prosecution. In February 2025, police received a report of violence at the family’s home, but officers were unable to collect a formal complaint after family members declined to cooperate. The husband was nevertheless questioned under caution and temporarily removed from the home.
KAN reported that the earlier police call concerned alleged violence toward the couple’s children, and that the suspect was released after a restraining order expired. During Monday’s remand hearing, police confirmed that two of the children were present in the home at the time of the killing. They that said the suspect partially cooperated with officers following his arrest.
Neighbors say shouting heard ahead of murder
Neighbors told Walla that they heard shouting from the apartment in the early morning hours and recalled hearing the daughter call out to her father to stop, but said they did not initially grasp the severity of what was unfolding.
Several neighbors described Danilov as a quiet, devoted mother and caregiver, and said they had occasionally heard loud arguments from the home in the past.
In separate interviews with Walla and Maariv, Danilov’s nephew, Alex Hefetz, described the deceased as a central figure in the family, who helped raise relatives after their immigration to Israel. He said she rarely spoke about personal difficulties and remained focused on caring for her children and extended family.
Women’s rights organizations warned that the murder underscores a broader and worsening pattern of domestic violence. Lily Ben-Ami, CEO of the Michal Sela Forum, said Danilov became “the first woman murdered in Israel in 2026,” after a year in which femicide statistics had risen sharply. Ben-Ami said the ongoing war had exacerbated domestic violence and accused the government of failing to treat the issue as a national emergency.
Prof. Shalva Weil, who heads the Israel Observatory on Femicide at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, told The Jerusalem Post, “Only a few days into 2026 and the first femicide has already taken place… In many cases, severe violence against women can end up as femicide. While, at first, the police defined the murder as a “criminal case,” this type of killing has to be recognized by the government and the police authorities as a femicide: the murder of a woman by a man because she is a woman.”
WIZO and the association No to Violence Against Women called for immediate, systemic intervention, saying domestic violence cannot be treated as an isolated or inevitable phenomenon.
Feminist activist group Bonot Alternativa also weighed in, warning that Danilov’s killing reflects a deepening structural failure. In a statement, the group said the murder came after a year marked by soaring rates of violence against women and argued that the normalization of violence since the outbreak of war has spilled into private homes.
The group said women continue to turn to welfare and emergency services, but that state systems remained unable to provide sustained protection.
The investigation is ongoing.