The police detained several suspects for questioning shortly after the incident, but later released them. "This is crossing a red line," said the director of the medical center, Dr. Masad Barhoum.
The incident began after the hospital admitted casualties following a vehicular accident.
Three young men, residents of one of the villages in the valleys, claimed that they were relatives of one of the wounded and demanded that they be allowed to enter the emergency room.
In a video documenting the incident, it seems that relatively quickly, a verbal altercation with the security guard transformed into a frenzy of slaps and kicks. The three pushed the guard into the emergency room and he was hit in the neck.
The security department staff was called to the scene and took the suspects out of the emergency room. The security guard was treated in the emergency room. The relatives of the attackers were also released from the hospital after receiving treatment shortly after the incident.
"This is a serious crossing of a red line that unfortunately we have been experiencing in recent years in the health system in Israel in particular and in our society in general," said Dr. Barhoum.
"I am sure that the police and the judicial system will fully prosecute the perpetrators. Only deterrent punishment will prevent such cases from recurring… I guarantee zero tolerance toward any attempt to harm the staff of the medical center," Barhoum concluded.
(Translated and edited by N. Elias)