2 suspected of firing air gun at Blue and White event released to house arrest
Court rejects police demand that duo remain in custody; suspect’s family says ‘the truth is out’
A man and a teenage boy suspected in the firing of an air gun last week at a Blue and White party event in Rehovot were sent to house arrest on Sunday.
The Lod District Court rejected a police request that the pair’s detention be extended, and they were released to house arrest for three days.
Police suspect the duo, one of whom is 16 and the other 26, of illegal possession of weapons, disrupting the national elections and causing bodily harm. The two, both of whom are from Rehovot, have contended that they fired the gun as a prank, and the 26-year-old even claimed that he had voted for Blue and White in the April elections.
The 16-year-old’s family said in a statement: “Finally the truth is out. We said from the start that this was a prank, and we are happy there are decent judges in Israel.”
The 26-year-old’s lawyer, Adi Carmeli, claimed that “had this been a similar case without the political context, it wouldn’t have even ended in an arrest.”
The incident occurred Thursday evening during a speech by the centrist party’s No. 2 and co-leader, Yair Lapid, to some 150 party members and supporters.
The shots were reportedly fired from a passing vehicle that quickly fled the scene.
Police said officers at the scene identified the pellets as plastic, and shot from a low-power air gun.
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.