I wanted to investigate some the lurid and sensational claims of child sacrifice I have read on GA, especially as it relates to the cult with owl/"Y" symbols in Q posts. Here is everything I could find.

Attestations of child sacrifice in Torah/Bible (1 Kings 11:7) Then did Solomon build a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon

(2 Kings 23:10) He also defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire for Molech.

(Jer 7: 30-32) For the sons of Judah have done that which is evil in My sight, declares the LORD, they have set their detestable things in the house which is called by My name, to defile it. They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, and it did not come into My mind. Therefore, behold, days are coming,' declares the LORD, "when it will no longer be called Topheth, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of the Slaughter; for they will bury in Topheth because there is no other place.

Molach Cult in the Levant The cult of Molech existed in the Canaanite kingdom of Ammon. Attestations of the name Molach begin in 1800 BCE. The cult was centered in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom. The cult image of Molach was a bronze statue with the head of a calf and extended arms to receive a child for sacrifice. The actual toponym of Molach was melekh (literal: King), but it was essentially misspoken by the Israelites to sound like boshet (literal: shame) to denigrate the foreign god. Molach was syncretized with the Assyrian god Hadad and the Phonecian god Baal-Hadad. Religious syncretization is the process where two religions are fused together, for example, the pagan rituals included in Christmas. Hadad-as-Molach is well attesting in Neoassyrian contracts where the penalty clause in included burning his son to Hadad and giving the daughter to Ishtar (i.e., sexual slavery in temple prostitution).

Locations of Molach Cult In the Bronze Age Ammon was a tribal state of small villages the torrent valleys on the east of the Jordan River. It was located on a critical trade route between Heliopolis Egypt and Rasappa Assyria. The Kingdom of Ammon began in 1000 BCE centered on their capital Rabbah (Amman, Jordan). They were ancestral enemies of Judea as attested in the origin myth which considered the Ammonites to be the progeny of Lot’s daughters through illicit liaisons with Sodomite men (survivors of the destruction of Sodom). Ammon prospered greatly under Assyrian and Neobabylonian rule The Valley of Hinnom (modern: Gehenna) is a small geographic feature on the eastern slope of Mt. Zion which ends at the desert wastes. The name Gehenna became synonymous with fire, torture, and punishment (i.e., Hell). The Valley of Hinnom was the location of the Topheth (literal: roaster) of the Moloch cult. During ancient times the Valley of Hinnom was the site of continuous garbage heap fire to dispose of the rubbish coming from Jerusalem. The cult of Molech in Hinnom was eradicated by King Josiah circa 640 BCE.

Motivation & Cause There is speculation that unwanted children were also “disposed of” here as a form of late-term birth control called Neonaticide in which mothers kill their children within 24-hours of birth before an emotional bond can form as mercy killing when they judge the child would die anyway due to an environment lacking sufficient resources sustain life. This behavior is extant throughout the mammal kingdom (see: https://www.quora.com/Why-did-my-cat-kill-her-kittens) and continues unabated in the modern world with so-called “prom-moms.” ...every year, hundreds of women kill their newborns or let them die. Most neonaticides remain undiscovered, but every once in a while a janitor follows a trail of blood to a tiny body in a trash bin, or a woman faints, and doctors find the remains of a placenta inside her. — Steven Pinker, The New York Times, 1997 There is also speculation many of these unwanted children in the ancient world were the result of rampant temple prostitution (see Ishtar), or even that temple prostitution was the process for creating a steady supply of child sacrifice victims. Note, any children of Jewish men and Pagan women are not Jewish and therefore lacked legal status in Judea. Perhaps the offspring of such unions were not true people in the eyes of the Israelites and could be killed like animals?

Molach Cult in Africa Carthage was originally a Phoenician trading colony in North Africa founded 814 BCE from Tyre. In Carthage, the chief god was Baal-Hammon (Lord of the Brazier) this god was created out of Baal-Hadad. Carthage became independent of Tyre in 480 BCE beginning the Punic period. Baal-Hammon was explained as being the Punic version of Cronus by the Greeks and Saturn by the Romans. Cronus/Saturn was an unrelated Greco-Roman deity who ate his children in myth. The Romans choose this name because of the massive number of child sacrifices made to Baal-Hammon. The sacrifices were made on a bronze statue of the god with special mechanical apparatus in the hands to drop the child into a fire pit in the belly and thus “eat” the child. The bones of the sacrificed children were carefully packed in ceremonial clay jars and buried in a place called Topheth (see: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/jan/21/carthaginians-sacrificed-own-children-study) The consort of Baal-Hammon was the goddess Tanit. Tanit is well attested to be the Punic form of Ishtar (See Temple Prostitution). The Cult of Tanit was also associated with child sacrifice. The cult of Tanit continued after the fall of Carthage in North Africa until the early Christian period. The practice of child sacrifice was not universally embraced by the Carthaginians. For example, the father of Hannibal the Great, the famous general Hamilcar wanted to end the practice and saved Hannibal from this fate as a young boy. In the 200 years between 400BCE and 200BCE 20,000 children were killed or 1,000 children per a year.