A group of Arabs viciously assaulted and injured two Israeli Jews in Akko’s old city, an incident some described as an attempted lynching.
The police arrested two Arabs on suspicion of involvement in the violent attack. Its initial investigation shows that Arabs taunting the Jews, two brothers who were out fishing at the old port, deteriorated into a violent attack on the Jews who were assaulted with clubs, iron bars and knives.
עדכון: ככל הנראה מדובר בניסיון לינצ' הלילה בעיר העתיקה בעכו. הנה עדות של אחד הצעירים. פרטים נוספים בהמשך. pic.twitter.com/1AeN2KsN4I
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The two Jews were lightly wounded and evacuated for treatment at the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya for bruises and a knife wound.
Gabi Moati, the father of the two brothers aged 18 and 20, told the Israeli Hayom daily that one of his sons went to inflate a tire on his ATV at a gas station and four Arabs started teasing him. He told them to leave him alone and left. The two brothers went from the gas station to look for a good fishing spot. Further down the harbor, they stood next to two older Arab fishermen in their fifties “and together they fished and everything was fine.”
“Suddenly they see dozens of young people coming to them and started teasing them and threatening and attacking them,” Moati recounted.
According to Moati, the two called the police while trying to escape from the many attackers. The police arrived on the scene and the dozens of attackers fled into the Old City.
One of the victims required stitches after being stabbed with a knife.
“It is a sad and difficult event and very serious,” Moati concluded.
The police will request to extend the detention of the suspects in the Magistrate’s Court in Akko.
Member of Knesset Simcha Rothman warned Minister of Public Security Omer Barlev and the police that if they do “not handle these events with all their might, in a few hours we can find ourselves again in the Operation Guardian of the Walls,” during which Arabs rioted in Israeli cities throughout the country.
