"The closure notice was sent to the deceased": The mother who lost her son is appealing

The mother of the worker Jazi Abu Sbitan, who was killed at the age of 22 when suspended scaffolding collapsed at the Park Bavli construction site in Tel Aviv, filed an appeal on Tuesday to the State Attorney against the decision of the Tel Aviv District Attorney's Office (Criminal) to close the case without filing indictments.

The disaster occurred on February 9, 2022, when the scaffolding on which the deceased and another worker were working collapsed from a height of over 40 floors, leading to their immediate deaths. The appeal filed by the mother also attacks the manner in which the closure decision was delivered to the family. Among other things, it is claimed that the closure notice was sent on March 17, 2026, addressed to the deceased himself ("To the Honorable Jazi Abu Sbitan"), in which it was stated that "You may file an appeal against the closure decision within 60 days from the day of receiving the notice from the Israel Police."

In the appeal, the mother claims that "a notice regarding the closure of the investigation file into a person's death was sent to the deceased. This detail alone is enough to show how the rights of the family members were maintained — or more accurately, were not maintained — during the process." The mother further claimed that although it was written that the police would send the family a written notice of the case closure, such a notice was not actually delivered to them. It is claimed that the family only learned of the case closure more than a month after the decision was made (on April 21, 2026) through a phone call from the prosecution, and only because the family reached out and initiated inquiries themselves.

It should be noted that on June 2, 2026, a letter was sent to the family from the State Attorney's Office expressing condolences. It was also noted that a notice of the case closure had been sent to the complainant (the mother - L.D.), so an appeal could have been filed by mid-May 2026. However, the letter notes that it was reported by the mother's representative that the mother only learned of the case closure at the end of May 2026. In the State Attorney's Office letter, it was stated that this claim is inaccurate, as on April 21, 2026, the prosecutor handling the case spoke with the complainant and other relatives and updated them on the decision to close the case. Ultimately, considering that this is an incident in which people were killed, the prosecution decided to grant the request, so the deadline for filing the appeal was extended until August 30, 2026.

The mother of Jazi Abu Sbitan asks in the appeal to cancel the closure decision and order the prosecution of suspects, or alternatively, to order the completion of the investigation. It should be emphasized that the request was filed in her name only. In the civil sphere, a settlement was reached in the case in which compensation was paid to the heirs of the deceased.

Adv. Mutalak Badran, the mother's attorney, stated: "These are two workers who lost their lives at a construction site in central Tel Aviv. Significant investigative material lies before the authorities. It is impossible that a disaster in which two workers fall to their deaths from a height of more than 40 floors should end with the closure of the case without the evidence being fully examined. We ask to return the case to the path of investigation and legal decision, and not to allow a situation where the splitting of responsibility at the site effectively becomes a lack of responsibility."

The prosecution responded: "The appeal was delivered to the prosecution and will be examined as is customary. Regarding the claim about updating the family on the decision in the case, it will be clarified that at the initiative of the prosecution, personal phone calls were made to the family members, in the presence of the prosecutor handling the case and an additional prosecutor who speaks Arabic. During the calls, the family members were personally updated on the full details, the considerations that stood at the basis of the decision, and the rights of the crime victims. In addition, the family members were given an extension for the deadline for filing the appeal beyond what is set by law in order to allow them to exhaust their rights and file an appeal against the decision."