Hostage protester, 74, attacked, car drives into crowd at Tel Aviv demonstration
Bnei Brak resident arrested for suspected attack on elderly man, demonstrators say no police presence amid repeated instances of violence at protest outside military HQ
A 74-year-old protester was attacked by a motorcyclist Monday during a demonstration calling for a hostage deal, outside the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv.
Shortly afterwards, a car appeared to drive into a crowd of protesters, lightly injuring several people, according to the Haaretz news site.
The elderly demonstrator, who was transferred to Ichilov Hospital, had been blocking Begin Road alongside other protesters outside the military complex, as participants read aloud the names of the hostages still held by terror groups in the Gaza Strip.
According to Hebrew reports, the demonstrator was repeatedly punched by the assailant, who drove off after the beating.
The wounded protester told Haaretz that he had been walking with signs between the cars on the road when the man came up to him on his motorcycle.
“I stopped him, he told me to move, I said I wouldn’t move, he got off the scooter. I told him not to touch me. He started punching me — I didn’t understand what was happening,” he recounted to the daily.
תיעוד תקיפה של מפגין למען החטופים, בן 73.
רוכב אופנוע, עם ציציות כמובן, תוקף את הקשיש באגרופים.
מחנה שהוא תת רמה אמרתי?
הם לא יהודים, משיחיות איננה יהדות. הם הפכו את סמלי היהדות לסמלי אלימות.
ציציות, כיפה שחורה..טפי עליהם חלאות אדם. pic.twitter.com/R6U0dPgtSl
— HolySmoke???? (@HolySmokexxxx) July 21, 2025
Police said in a statement that one suspect, a 21-year-old resident of the overwhelmingly ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv, has been arrested and taken for questioning.
Some five minutes after the motorcyclist’s assault, protesters told Haaretz, another driver tried to ram his car into them.
Some twenty seconds of the incident were captured on camera by the daily’s photographer, showing the car moving toward the protesters, and protesters banging on its windows and making noise around it.
“A car continued to drive into us, tried to run us over. We walked back, and it continued to drive, until we managed to bring the police here,” one demonstrator, Tina Bekenstein, told the newspaper.
There were no reports of serious injuries.
The incidents took place amid an unusual absence of police, Haaretz reported, adding that there has been a gradual limiting of police presence in recent weeks, amid demands that the demonstrators obtain a permit before gathering.
אלימות נגד מפגינים למען החטופים בשער בגין: בן 74 הוכה ע"י אופנוען ופונה לאיכילוב; נהג האיץ לעבר מוחים שחסמו את הכביש@eli_zil pic.twitter.com/I56XpCj1IL
— גלצ (@GLZRadio) July 21, 2025
Officers reportedly arrived after the attack by the motorcyclist.
After the two incidents, police declared that the protest was illegal and called on demonstrators to stop blocking the road.
MK Naama Lazimi, of the left-wing The Democrats party, said in a statement that she reached out to the police a month ago, saying protesters’ safety was being threatened.
“I warned against a trend of escalating violence against protesters, and I emphasized that the absence of police presence harms the physical security of the participants [in the protests],” she said at the time, in a letter to police chief Daniel Levy, according to the statement.
Levy has not responded to her letter, she said.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement that it “totally condemns the attack on protesters for the hostages in Tel Aviv.” It was not immediately clear which of the incidents the forum was responding to.
“We want to send our big thanks, from the bottom of our hearts, to all the activists for the hostages, and we remind them, and everyone, that an overwhelming majority of the nation stands with them, and their holy work,” the statement said.
“No act of violence by a few people will make us forget the simple truth — the nation is with the hostages,” it said.
The Times of Israel Community.