Right-wing activist suspected of attacking bereaved father at Tel Aviv rally released to house arrest

A man suspected of attacking Gadi Kedem, whose daughter and son-in-law and their three children were murdered by Hamas on October 7, has been released to house arrest.

The Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court releases right-wing activist Uri Harush after questioning Kedem under caution yesterday over a violent incident during a clash at a rally in Tel Aviv on Saturday night.

“A review of [Kedem’s] testimony shows that the injury to his head was caused by being hit on the head with a sharp object. It is possible that another person holding a sign also attacked the complainant,” Judge Binyamin Judge Hirschel Doron notes in his decision.

In video from Saturday evening, a man can be seen arguing with a group of protesters while clutching a sign, which reporters said read “Leftist traitors.” Gadi’s wife, Reuma, can be seen trying to grab the sign, and the man moves forward, at which point Gadi lunges toward him.

Video from a few minutes later shows Kedem bleeding from the head, as his wife Reuma says that the man who approached them told them that “it’s good that your children died” and called them “stinking leftists.”

עוד זווית מתקיפת ראומה וגדי קדם אמש על ידי תומכי נתניהו. אחרי שביביסטים התעמתו עם ראומה והחזיקו שלט ״שמאלנים בוגדים״ ואמרו לה ״טוב שהרגו את הילדים שלכם״ ראומה ניסתה לקחת לתומך נתניהו את השלט מהיד והוא הכה אותה באגרוף. שניה לאחר מכן גדי חוצה את הגדר. מהזווית הזאת נראה שהוא הודף את… pic.twitter.com/KJrKjpgyNE

— בר שם-אור Bar Shem-Ur (@Bar_ShemUr) May 19, 2024

Kedem’s daughter Tamar, son-in-law Yonatan and three grandchildren, Shahar, Arbel and Omer, were murdered in their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz during Hamas’s October 7 massacre in southern Israel. Yonatan’s mother, Carol, was also slain that day.