Police make more arrests in Jerusalem soccer hooligan crackdown

Israeli police overnight arrested 17 people linked to Beitar Jerusalem’s “La Familia” ultra-nationalist soccer club as part of a mass crackdown on violence in Israeli sports that has seen over 70 arrests in two days.

Twelve of those taken in have had their detention extended, police said in a statement.

The arrests are the result of an operation that saw a former member who turned state’s evidence infiltrate the group for over six months. Fifty-six Beitar fans were arrested overnight Tuesday on suspicion of selling weapons, various acts of violence, smuggling firecrackers onto soccer fields, as well as several drug-related offenses.

Five of those arrested are accused of trying to kill Yuri Saldotzky, a fan of rival soccer club Hapoel Tel Aviv, with an ax during a brawl in October last year. The suspects were identified as Assi Bassano, Yoav Nahshon, Omer Golan and Matan Shimon, with a fifth person not named.

The 32-year-old Hapoel fan was ambushed by Beitar supporters as he alighted from a bus in Tel Aviv’s Florentine neighborhood on October 3 last year. During the skirmish he was struck in the head with an ax which became lodged in his skull. He was taken to the Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, where he underwent emergency surgery to remove the ax.

During the raids police seized 20 stun grenades, a kilogram of explosives, two gas grenades, two smoke grenades, 19 improvised grenades, and 29 flares.

The La Familia soccer fan club has a reputation for anti-Arab racism and violence.

In May 2013, the Jerusalem District Court convicted two soccer fans for torching the Beitar Jerusalem team’s offices in protest of the club signing two Chechen Muslim players. The decision came after Evyatar Yosef, 21, and Matan Navon, 23, pleaded guilty under a plea bargain for the arson attack. Under the deal, the two admitted to all charges but did not identify themselves as members of La Familia.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.