The High Court has ruled that Israeli authorities may not perform post-mortem examinations on two babies who died at a Jerusalem nursery earlier this week.
More than 50 children were injured after an apparent fault with the heating system at the reportedly unlicensed daycare, which police believe was severely overcrowded.
There have been conflicting reports about whether the casualties were the result of a gas leak or dehydration and heat exhaustion.
Police had pushed to perform autopsies to determine the cause of death, with the Jerusalem Magistrates' Court ruling in their favour on Monday.
However, the decision was appealed by the children's parents, who are members of the Charedi community, and the strictly-Orthodox Zaka emergency service.
The High Court heard their petition yesterday afternoon and ruled that autopsies were not required if all available non-surgical tests were completed instead.
Justices Alex Stein, Yechiel Kasher, and Ruth Ronen also ordered that the two children be buried without delay.
The decision came amid a spate of riots in the city as Charedi men took to the streets to oppose what they saw as the "desecration" of the dead.
Hundreds marched after Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch, head of the rabbinical courts within the Edah Haredit sect, said there was an “obligation on each and every person to go out onto the city’s streets and protest against the autopsy and desecration of the dead”.
Police used water cannons, stun grenades and batons to disperse the crowd after the rioters set fire to rubbish bins, uprooted trees and blocked main roads.
An elderly man was assaulted as he tried to clear a roadblock, while a 15-year-old Charedi boy was injured after trying to block a car's path on Bar Ilan Street, according to police.
Three caregivers have been detained for questioning. The National Council for the Child has demanded police and Education Department investigations into “not only the serious negligence, but the issue of the daycare’s operating license, as well”.
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