Detention extended for man who allegedly assaulted anti-government protesters in Beersheba

A judge has ordered a man to three more days of detention after he allegedly assaulted anti-government protesters last night in Beersheba. He will remain in custody until Tuesday.

During a demonstration calling for a state commission of inquiry into government failures surrounding the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, onslaught, 34-year-old Avichai Buskila arrived with two others at the protest site in a car. A poster in the rearview window read, “Leftist traitors.”

Buskila allegedly threw objects at the protesters and doused them in a flammable substance, which demonstrators at the scene claimed was gasoline. During the hearing, police say the substance was oil, Ynet reports.

He was detained alongside a man in his 50s last night, who had also been in the car. Both were interrogated by officers; however, the older man was freed subject to limitations, police tell The Times of Israel, since Buskila was the only one suspected of assaulting demonstrators.

Buskila’s lawyer requested that he be freed to house arrest, Ynet reports. The Beersheba Magistrate’s Court decides instead to extend his detention based on his criminal record of violent offenses and seeming intention to spark a confrontation with the protesters.