Israeli community heading toward collapse

Four sixth-grade Israel girls have been charged in a plot to murder a classmate.

The girls told their interrogators that they were planning to cover their tracks using methods they learned from watching a popular children's television series called Galis.

Israeli jidges have announced Sunday that they had charged the girls – from an elementary school in the Bikat Ono area of greater Tel Aviv – of conspiracy to commit a crime, theft and possession of a knife.

A fifth girl involved is not yet 12 years old and therefore cannot be prosecuted.

The plot was uncovered by chance.

The girl who was the intended victim of the ring told her principal that while she was sitting in one of the restroom stalls, she overheard the other girls discussing plans to seriously hurt her.

The principal called the police, who found a knife in the possession of one of the girls, and another knife hidden away at another location.

The plotters were angry with the girl after she teased one of them.

The investigation revealed that they planned to lead the victim to a nearby grove after school, where they were going to stab and kill her, once one of them uttered a code word.

They intended to dig a hole and bury their victim, and then change their clothes and go out of town, to make it more difficult for investigators to tie them to the crime.