Police have arrested three more suspects in connection with the brutal mob lynching of an Arab Israeli man in Bait Yam in May.
Following their arrest on Sunday, three Bait Yam residents were brought before the Tel Aviv magistrate’s court, which ordered an extension of their remand by a week.
Two of them – 22-year-old Tamir Suroor and 27-year-old Yitzhak Saban – are suspected of attempted murder. The third suspect, 20-year-old Itzik Guetta, is suspected of abetting the violence.
Saeed Musa was seriously injured in the May attack, which was caught on live television and comes amid rising ethnic tensions between Jews and Arabs in Israeli cities beset by armed conflict between Israeli and Gaza militant groups.
A total of 13 people have been arrested so far in the beating case and 10 of them have been named.
Police say they have documentary evidence showing Sur and Saban attacking Moussa, the latter suspected of beating him in the head and chest, according to the Haaretz daily.
Saban’s lawyers denied the allegations.
“He was not involved in any criminal incident – not assault and certainly not attempted murder. We believe a later investigation will clear the picture and he will be released.”
A man beats a man lying on the ground in Bat Yam, amid interracial violence across Israel, on May 12, 2021. (Cannes TV screenshot)
Guetta is suspected of trying to bring others into the region and then provoking them by calling them a curse against the Arabs.
“This is a person who took part in a legitimate protest. He ran with the crowd after hearing the cries of the ‘terrorist’ and after realizing it was an isolated incident that didn’t go well with him, he left the area,” Guetta’s lawyers said.
According to an indictment filed in the case, Moussa was on his way to the beach in Bat Yam when he was attacked by a group gathered to attack Arabs and Arab-owned businesses in the Tel Aviv-area city.
According to prosecutors, Moses attempted to back away from the crowd, but hit a car behind him. He then accelerated, people jumped out of the way, before colliding with another car.
He was then pulled out of the car by the crowd, some people claimed he had attempted to run over pedestrians, and was badly beaten up. He was taken to Ichilov Hospital in critical condition and has been in good health since then.
Hundreds of indictments have been filed against Jews and Arabs in the days leading up to the riots, in which mobs on each side attacked members of the opposite ethnicity, in violence not seen in decades. Tensions were partly fueled by a war with Gaza-based militants and violent Palestinian protests in Jerusalem.
