Arab bus driver beaten unconscious in Beit Shemesh after refusing to stop between stations

Khaled Asiwat is latest Arab bus driver assaulted in wave of attacks by racist youth; union calls for greater protection for drivers; police probe incident, but no arrests

An Arab bus driver was attacked and beaten unconscious in Beit Shemesh on Sunday after he refused to allow a group of passengers to get off in between stops, in the latest in a series of similar assaults.

The driver, Khaled Asiwat, spoke to the Kan public broadcaster from his hospital bed, with visible injuries to his face as a result of the assault.

“Some guys wanted me to stop when we weren’t at a station – I didn’t agree, because it’s against the law,” he said. “So he started beating me.”

“I tried to call the police. I tried to call somebody who could come protect me,” he continued. “I was taking blows everywhere.”

Asiwat said he heard his assailant “call to the other two or three guys who were with him: Come, come, come here!” before he lost consciousness.

The bus, local Line 2, was “full of people” at the time, he said.

נהג אוטובוס ערבי בן כ-50 הותקף היום בבית שמש באלימות קשה על ידי נוסע ופונה לבית חולים. המשטרה פתחה בחקירה, טרם נעצרו חשודים | תיעוד@HGoldich pic.twitter.com/JC7bYUav0T

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) August 30, 2026

The last year has seen a rash of attacks on Arab bus drivers by ultra-nationalist Jewish youths, many of them in and around Jerusalem.

Police opened an investigation into the incident on Sunday, but no arrests have been reported.

The Koach LaOvdim labor group said in a statement: “If we don’t act, the attacks on public transport workers won’t stop until a driver or fare inspector pays with his life.”

Itay Cohen, who heads the group’s transportation wing, demanded the expansion of police protection for public transit workers, a complete physical barrier between drivers and their passengers, and a recognition of bus drivers as public servants, whom it is especially grievous in the eyes of the law to assault.

Earlier this month, teenagers assaulted an Arab driver on a local Jerusalem bus route until he lost consciousness, knocking out four of his teeth, according to Koach LaOvdim.

In February, the group said that there was a 30% increase in attacks on bus drivers last year compared to 2024. In Jerusalem alone, Koach LaOvdim recorded 100 cases of physical assault in which a driver had to be taken for medical care.