Two days later, police arrest 2 suspects in attack on pregnant Arab woman in Jaffa

Police say they have arrested two suspects over the attack on a pregnant Arab woman in Jaffa over the weekend, which has inflamed tensions in the mixed Jewish-Arab city in recent days.

The suspects were arrested this evening and are being interrogated by police officers at the Ayalon District’s crimefighting unit.

The Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court has issued a gag order on details of the investigation, forbidding the publication of any information that could identify the two suspects.

Both are suspected of pepper-spraying 30-year-old Hanan Abu Shehadeh while she was driving Saturday with her two children in the city’s Ajami neighborhood. The attackers shouted racist epithets and spat on her 7-year-old daughter, she told Arabic outlets.

According to Abu Shehadeh, she was confronted by three assailants, meaning one is still at large.

Police said the incident occurred after an argument between Abu Shehadeh and the assailants, but she and her family have rejected the claim, insisting that the attackers were motivated by anti-Arab sentiment.

Yesterday, police solicited the public’s help in searching for three young men suspected in the attack, sharing a still from security camera footage displaying their faces. According to Hebrew outlets, the Shin Bet is assisting police in the case.

The attack sparked outrage among Jaffa’s Arab residents, many of whom went on strike at the behest of the Islamic Council of Jaffa, leading schools and businesses to shutter today.

On Saturday night, hundreds took part in a stormy march to the scene of the incident, accusing the government of complicity in the attack.

Police nabbed a sheikh who took part in the demonstration on incitement suspicions the same night, and a day later they arrested 14 other men involved in the march. They were all released by the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court earlier today.