Man slashes tires during road rage fight on central highway
Suspect to be charged; incident occurred 2 weeks ago, comes to light hours after funeral for Holon man stabbed to death by motorcyclist
A video circulated online on Sunday showing a fight between motorists on a major central-Israel highway, with one driver using a knife to puncture the tires of a second driver and then threatening to use the knife on him as well.
The fight on Route 431 occurred two weeks ago, but the video was posted on Twitter Sunday, hours after a funeral for a Holon man who was stabbed to death during a road rage incident last week.
In the video shared by several Hebrew media outlets, a man, reportedly from Bat Yam, is seen approaching another driver standing next to his car and arguing with him. After the second driver shoves the approaching man away repeatedly, the latter pulls out a knife and slashes two of the car’s tires.
As the knifeman walks away, the second driver runs after him and raises his fists as if to punch him, before the knifeman threateningly raises the weapon, causing the second man, apparently from the nearby city of Rehovot, to back away.
The Bat Yam man was detained by police following the incident, Israel Police said in a statement.
The suspect was released after questioning, and charges were to be brought against him, police said.
הסתפק בשתי דקירות בצמיגים תודה לאל היום נגמר בנס pic.twitter.com/kI4lJN11U5
— לירי בורק שביט (@lirishavit) November 27, 2022
Last Wednesday Yuri Volkov was stabbed to death last week by a scooter rider during a dispute at a Holon crosswalk. The suspect, 23-year-old Adi Mizrahi, was arrested a day after the killing.
On Sunday evening Mizrahi, who had until then denied he was the culprit, confessed to killing Volkov and expressed regret for his actions.
Earlier this month, a man was hospitalized after a motorcyclist beat him over the head with his helmet on a Tel Aviv highway. The 50-year-old driver was treated at the neurosurgery intensive care at the city’s Ichilov Hospital with head injuries. His condition later improved.
The suspected attacker, Arik Greenfeld, 37, who was seen on video hitting the driver with his helmet during an altercation in the middle of rush hour traffic, claimed that he acted in self-defense and that the other driver attacked him first, punched him, and broke his teeth, Channel 13 reported.
Greenfeld has a past conviction in a hit-and-run accident that the family of the victim in that case claim led to the victim’s death a year and a half later. He also has a separate past conviction of hitting someone on the head with a motorcycle helmet, according to Hebrew media reports.
