5 charged for attacks on drivers near southern Bedouin town amid violence in May

The Shin Bet and Israel Police have arrested five suspects for allegedly attacking drivers near the southern Bedouin town of Lakia in May, during ethnic violence that broke out in the country amid fighting in Gaza between Israel and Palestinian terror groups.

The five, all residents of Lakia, are accused of three attacks on the night of May 11.

According to a Shin Bet statement, the suspects pelted a Jewish woman’s car with rocks and, after she was rescued by a truck driver, set the vehicle ablaze.

The security service says that in another incident, the suspects threw rocks at a vehicle being driven by a migrant worker from Thailand, before violently pulling him from the car and setting it alight. The suspects let the man go after realizing he wasn’t Jewish and he was taken for medical treatment, according to the statement.

The Shin Bet also says the suspects hurled rocks at the vehicle of an Israeli man and tried to forcibly remove him from the car, but he was rescued by police who arrived at the scene. The driver also required medical treatment.

Indictments against the three have been filed at the Beersheba Magistrate’s Court, the Shin Bet says, without specifying the charges.