Woman throws tomato at Netanyahu during campaign stop at Tel Aviv market

A woman threw a tomato at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday during a campaign stop in Tel Aviv, and his Likud party claimed video of the incident was spread by his chief political rival.

The tomato, which was gently lobbed in his general direction, did not hit Netanyahu, who was surrounded by a large number of police and security guards as he toured the Hatikva Market with his wife Sara ahead of general elections next week.

It was not clear from the video if the women paid the shopkeeper for the tomato.

Netanyahu’s challenger Benny Gantz condemned the tomato throwing.

“Israel needs unity — not violence,” Gantz, who heads the Blue and White party, wrote on Twitter.

אישה העיפה עגבנייה מהדוכן לעבר נתניהו במהלך ביקורו היום בשוק התקווה @amit_segal pic.twitter.com/KjJp9jCHWA

— החדשות – N12 (@N12News) April 2, 2019

However, Likud went after Gantz and accused him of seeking to tarnish Netanyahu’s visit to the market, which is located in south Tel Aviv’s hardscrabble Hatikva neighborhood.

“The 99.9 percent support for Prime Minister Netanyahu at Hatikva Market really bothered Benny Gantz so he decided to put out the video clip to the media of the 0.1% and afterwards rushed to condemn” the tomato throwing, the party was quoted as saying by Hebrew media.

“What hypocrisy,” it added.

Besides the tomato throwing, Netanyahu was otherwise largely well received during his visit to the market, with supporters chanting “Bibi is king of Israel,” using the prime minister’s nickname.

The incident came as Israel enters the home stretch of a heated election campaign for Knesset elections on April 9.