Suspects in attack on Arab woman in Jaffa have history of violence against West Bank Palestinians, police said to tell court

Three young men arrested on suspicion of attacking a pregnant Arab woman in Jaffa over the weekend have a history of violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, a police representative reportedly told a judge during their remand hearing.

The three are “hilltop youth” who have been issued restraining orders in the past by police, temporarily barring them from the West Bank, the representative said, according to Hebrew outlets.

Two years ago, one of the suspects had been put in administrative detention on suspicion of having attacked Palestinians in the central West Bank, Haaretz reports.

All three are suspected of having arrived in Jaffa with the goal of carrying out a planned, racially motivated attack on Saturday. They found their target in 30-year-old Hanan Abu Shehadeh, who was driving with her two children and mother-in-law.

According to her account, the young men hurled racist epithets at her and spat on her young daughter through the open car windows, then pepper-sprayed her and her family.

Police also noted during the hearing in the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court that the suspects gave identical versions of the incident during their separate police interrogations, Ynet reports, raising the suspicion that they coordinated their responses in advance.