Several Jewish worshipers attacked and injured a Druze guard at the Meron pilgrimage site in northern Israel, Hebrew media reports.
The incident occurred Saturday ahead of the mass pilgrimage tonight for the festival of Lag B’Omer.
Security video from the scene shows seven young men attacking Hamoud Sha’afi, 27, hitting him with iron bars, kicking him while he was on the ground, and throwing a traffic barrier on him.
Sha’afi, who has worked at the shrine as a guard for two years, says he and another guard were called in after a group was creating a disturbance.
“They heard us speaking Arabic between us and ran towards us and began beating us,” he tells the Ynet news site.
Sha’afi is hospitalized at Ziv medical center, where he underwent surgery yesterday to repair a broken arm.
Police say they have detained two people on suspicion of assault and expect further arrests.
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