Mob attacks Arab group driving in Bat Yam on Yom Kippur, overturns vehicle
According to reports, attackers claim the group entered the coastal city to deliberately disturb the peace when roads are mainly car-free; 3 injured
Five men from the south of the country were attacked by a mob in the coastal city of Bat Yam on Tuesday evening.
According to Hebrew-language media reports, the driver and passengers were all Arab and from the south of the country.
Police were called to the scene and extracted one of the men from the crowd, taking him to a local police station before he was transferred to the hospital for treatment.
Two others ran from the mob and were found later with wounds consistent with an attack. The other two men were not injured.
The Walla news site said the crowd claimed the men had arrived in the city with the deliberate aim of disturbing the peace during Yom Kippur.
It was unclear how the motivation of the men had been ascertained by the crowd.
Separately, a mob in the city overturned a vehicle belonging to residents of the Arab town of Jaljulia.
בת ים, ערב כיפור, המון יהודי מסיים תפילה בבית הכנסת, לפתע רואה זוג ערבים נוסע בכביש. ההמון תוקף אותם ואת הרכב, הופך את הרכב על צידו, פוצע קל אחד הערבים, שמאושפז בבית החולים. pic.twitter.com/BQQpYcGiEl
— Yossi Eli יוסי אלי (@Yossi_eli) October 5, 2022
Roads are largely clear of cars as is the national tradition; driving during the Jewish Day of Atonement is considered taboo, although there are always a number of emergency vehicles and others on the roads.
The incident was not the first time a mob in the city has attacked an Arab driver.
Last year, a mob attacked an Arab motorist in Bat Yam during a spasm of communal violence. A crowd yanked Saeed Mousa from his car and proceeded to beat him in an assault that left him motionless and bloodied on the ground, and seriously injured.
The beating occurred while Israel was at war with the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip. The 11-day war in May 2021 ignited an unprecedented wave of internecine Jewish-Arab violence in cities around the country.
At least 10 people have been charged in that incident.
