Police arrest 3 Bat Yam residents for barring people from shelters during Iran attacks

Police say they have arrested three Bat Yam residents for blocking people from entering shelters during Iranian missile attacks. All three were brought in for questioning at the Bat Yam police station, law enforcement says.

One of the suspects detained had allegedly blocked a woman and her elderly parents from entering an apartment building’s shelter because they didn’t reside in the complex.

Police also arrested a man who reportedly attacked a woman after she tried to bring her dog and cat into a public shelter the evening of June 14. She was hospitalized with a broken nose.

The woman filed a complaint against the man and his son, who had also joined in the beating, according to a Channel 12 report.

Preventing someone from taking cover in a shelter is a criminal offense, punishable with a year of jail time or a fine. Many such incidents have been reported across the country since the outbreak of war with Iran 11 days ago.

Yesterday, an Arab Israeli resident of Haifa told the city’s local 107.5FM radio station that she was blocked from taking cover in a public shelter in a Haredi-majority neighborhood, during a daytime missile barrage that interrupted her morning commute to work.

She stopped her car in the middle of the road and followed a crowd of people running toward a shelter in a nearby building, she said, but was denied entry by a resident near the door, and she remained outside as the sirens blared.

Police similarly detained a resident of Petah Tikva on Friday, after he was caught on film denying someone entry to a shelter while dressed in a phony sheriff’s costume, consisting of a vest and baseball cap, Hebrew outlets reported last week.