An undocumented Palestinian who attacked an infant he was babysitting in southern Israel, leaving her with a fractured skull, was accused by the court on Tuesday of assaulting, abandoning and neglecting a minor.

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The mother of the 11-months-old child, who apparently left the baby with the Palestinian to go out partying, was arrested on Monday in the city of Ashkelon, along with the infant’s biological father. The police have asked for the arrest of the 22-year-old mother to be extended.

Apartment building in Ashkelon where the incident happened (Photo: Roee Idan)

The father, from the nearby Bedouin community, was released by the police following an interrogation.

The baby is still hospitalized in a critical condition at Soroka Medical Center in Be’er Sheva with multiple skull fractures. The extent of head injury was revealed following an x-ray which was conducted after the child started suffering seizures.

The 22-year-old Palestinian was the one who called the mother and alerted the neighbors after he suspected the baby suffered an injury. However, once the Magen David Adom emergency teams arrived, the suspect fled the apartment and was later arrested.

"When we arrived at the apartment we saw the baby unconscious," said MDA paramedic Ethan Lesri, who was one of the first to arrive at the scene. “We provided her with life-saving medical care … and transferred her to the hospital in a difficult but stable condition.”

Dr. Yuval Kaveri, a senior pediatric intensive care unit at the Soroka Hospital, where the baby was transferred to from Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon, on Tuesday said the baby had undergone an operation and is now in critical condition. “We are fighting for her life,” he said.