Oct 18, 2009, 8:48 GMT
Tel Aviv - The weekend murder of a family of six - two grandparents, two parents, and two young children - was the worst in Israel for decades, a police spokesman said Sunday.
The six fatalities were found early Saturday morning, stabbed to death in a partially-burned out apartment in the city of Rishon Lezion, south of Tel Aviv. The youngest victim was aged three months.
Police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld told the German Press Agency dpa that police were following two lines of enquiry - either an outsider had killed the six, or one of the family killed the other five, set fire to the apartment, and then killed himself.
He said the family had no criminal past.
The fatalities have been named as the Oshrenko family, who immigrated to Israel from Uzbekistan in the former Soviet Union in 1990.
They had gathered at the apartment on Friday night to celebrate the third birthday of the oldest child.
A media gag order has been imposed on the investigation.
Your Talkback on this Story