Police announced on Wednesday that four more suspects were to be indicted for the brutal mob beating of an Arab Israeli man in the central city of Bat Yam in May, raising the number of people accused in the ethnically charged attack to ten.
Saeed Musa was seriously injured in the attack, which was caught on live television and came amid armed conflict between Israeli and Gaza terrorist groups, as well as serious ethnic tensions between Jews and Arabs inside Israeli cities.
The four suspects arrested last week were not initially identified, but police said three of them are 30-year-olds from Bat Yam and nearby Holon, and the fourth is a central city minor.
So far, six suspects have been officially charged for the attack.
Thirty-five-year-old David Bittier was charged with serious terror-related assault. Shai Simone, 40, was charged with racially motivated theft and aggravated intentional assault. Yaakov Cohen, 31, was charged with intentionally causing harm in a vehicle charge. Netanel Binyamin, 25, was charged with attempted murder. Lahav Ohnaina, 18, and an unidentified minor, 16, were charged with terror charges.
According to a previous chargesheet, 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.
Lynches live in Bat Yam: Young Jews violently attack a motorcyclist, police officers not at the scene. documentation@daniel_elazar #evening News pic.twitter.com/hBN0e8UrCW
— news here (@kann_news) 12 May 2021
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 the Ichilov Hospital in critical condition. Since then his condition is improving.
The last six suspects were indicted in Tel Aviv District Court. Judges extended the custody of the four new suspects until Thursday, when the court intends to charge them with assault.
A man beats a man lying on the ground in Bat Yam, amid interracial violence across Israel, on May 12, 2021. (Cannes TV screenshot)
After the incident, which was filmed and broadcast on live television, Ohnaina told the Cannes public broadcaster: “We went out on the street today to fight the Arabs so we can show them that they can’t send missiles here. There are no children. We will fuck them. We will beat them. If necessary, we will kill them and if necessary we will also kill them.”
Hundreds of indictments have been filed against Jews and Arabs in the days leading up to the riots, in which mobs everywhere 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.