Four-year-old Yuval Kogan, who had been missing for more than 24 hours after disappearing near Hofit Beach in Ashkelon, was found alive on Friday in what many are calling an open miracle, just moments after mezuzos were affixed in his family’s home and the Twelve Pesukim were recited.

Yuval disappeared Thursday afternoon while on a family outing with his father and two older sisters at Ashkelon’s northern beach. According to police, the boy wandered into dense vegetation after briefly being out of his father’s sight. An extensive search was immediately launched, involving hundreds of police officers, Border Police personnel, rescue teams, Shin Bet agents, volunteers, and civilians.

Throughout the ordeal, Yuval’s mother, Dr. Dina Kogan, a pediatrician, pleaded with the public to help find her son. “We are in critical hours, and my child is in danger,” she said. “Maybe this is a kidnapping. The entire country needs to be on its feet.”

The search came to a dramatic conclusion Friday afternoon when a civilian volunteer, who said he had mistakenly taken the wrong road while heading toward Nitzanim Beach, spotted the young boy standing beneath a tree in the dunes.

“I took the wrong road, and suddenly I saw the child standing under a tree,” the volunteer recounted. “There is Hakadosh Baruch Hu in the world. Thank Hashem!”

At virtually the same time, an extraordinary scene was unfolding at the Kogan family’s home.

Rabbi Moshe Peles, shliach in Ashkelon, shared that individuals who know Yuval’s mother arranged to have the family’s mezuzos checked. Missing mezuzos were replaced, and new mezuzos were affixed to two missing doorways. They then gathered Yuval’s sisters, their friends, and neighbors to recite the Twelve Pesukim together.

“I am shaking with excitement,” Rabbi Peles said afterward. “We finished putting up the mezuzos and recited the Twelve Pesukim. We hadn’t even finished. Not even thirty seconds had passed when we received the phone call.”

“While we were affixing the mezuzos and saying the Twelve Pesukim, the child was found,” he said. “It was an open miracle.”

Yuval was reunited with his family and taken for medical evaluation. Authorities have not yet released official details regarding his medical condition or how he survived alone through the night.

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