16-year-old charged with firing air gun at Blue and White event
Teen indicted for assault over shooting of 2 activists with rubber pellets from a passing vehicle
A teenage boy was charged Tuesday for firing an air gun last week at a Blue and White party event in Rehovot.
The suspect, 16, a resident of the city, was accused of peppering a man and a woman with the rubber bullets in a drive-by attack.
He later dumped the low-power air gun in the bushes in the city of Nes Ziona, according to the charge sheet.
He was indicted on two charges of assault, obstruction of justice, and disorderly conduct.
The incident occurred Thursday evening during a speech by the centrist Blue and White party’s No. 2 and co-leader, Yair Lapid, to some 150 party members and supporters.
Two party activists were hit by pellets in their limbs. “The activists are okay except for superficial injuries,” the party said in a statement at the time.
“During a speech by Yair Lapid we heard two shots,” said Zohar Blum, Blue and White’s local leader in Rehovot and the city’s deputy mayor. “Fortunately they were only lightly wounded but it is saddening that this happens during an election campaign in a democracy.
“I just hope this issue won’t deteriorate because this time, by luck, it ended like this, but it could have ended differently,” he told Channel 12 news. “We hope police will locate the perpetrators.”
Lapid also reacted to the incident, hinting it might have been due to “incitement.”
“We will not be deterred or scared,” he said. “We will continue fighting to change the country in the face of violence and incitement.”
Blue and White was formed ahead of the April elections by a union of Benny Gantz’s Israel Resilience party, Lapid’s Yesh Atid and former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon’s Telem.
It is the main challenger to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, having won 35 seats in the April elections to Likud’s 36. It is currently polling neck-and-neck with the ruling party ahead of the September 17 vote, which Netanyahu initiated when he failed to form a government in the wake of the previous elections.
The Times of Israel Community.