Asylum seekers in Tel Aviv
Photo: Benny Deutch
Stabbing spree leaves 3 asylum seekers wounded in Tel Aviv
Three asylum seekers stabbed in Tel Aviv's southern Central Bus Station; three Israelis arrested. All three asylum seekers taken to hospital in light condition
A man stabbed three asylum seekers in Tel Aviv Saturday night. The three sustained only light wounds and were taken to city hospital.
The police have arrested three Israelis in connection to the event.
The three victims were stabbed independently near Tel Aviv Central Bus Station – a site known for its high concentration of foreign nationals, housing both foreign workers and asylum seekers.
The order of the stabbings is unclear, but the distances between the stabbing sites seem to follow a route around the Levinski Park, where refugee seekers have been congregating and demonstrating in recent weeks.
According to initial reports, one victim was stabbed in his back along Rosh Pina Street, another was stabbed in his stomach on Levinski Street and the last also sustained a stomach wound on Solomon Street.
This is not the first time the African community in Israel has been targeted by possible hate crimes, though the police now believe that the stabbing was criminally motivated and was part of an attempted robbing involving the three victims and the three Israelis arrested.
In January, an Eritrean infant sustained serious injuries in the same area after a man under the influence of alcohol attacked her and her parents, stabbing her in the head.
At the time, a team of Magen David Adom paramedics evacuated the infant to a hospital under life support measures.
According to reports, the mother, father, and infant of Eritrean descent, were walking in the area of the Tel Aviv Central Bus Station, when a man who seemed intoxicated lashed out at the three. The attacker, in his 50s, struck the infant in her head and fled the scene and was later apprehend by the police.
