Police detain 2nd suspect of attack on Arabs at Haifa beach
After 3 Arabs from Shfaram were attacked at Kiryat Haim beach, police detain second suspect, with one of released to 3-day house arrest; victims say racism led to attack.
The police arrested Saturday a second suspect in the beating of three Arabs from Shfaram at a Haifa beach earlier this week, while a judge ordered to release the first suspect and put him on house arrest instead.
The 23-year-old suspect from Kiryat Haim was put on a three-day house arrest, with the judge criticizing the police for failing to present evidence to tie the suspect to the attack, as well as failing to check his alibi or hold a police lineup in the 24 hours he was in custody.
The second suspect, a 29-year-old man from Nesher, will be brought in front of a judge on Sunday.
The victims—a doctor from the Ichilov Hospital at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, a 28-year-old nurse and a 20-year-old man—described the chain of events leading to their attack.
“We were sitting on the beach for about half an hour when a Jewish man walked up to us and asked if we were Arabs. We said ‘yes, what do you want?’ And he just left. We thought that he might be drunk. The man returned shortly, this time accompanied by many others," the victims said.
“After two minutes, he came back with nine other people with knives, metal chains and bars and just started to beat us,” they recalled.
“They started hitting us with no mercy, in all parts of our body, when we were sitting down. They wanted to kill us, just because we are Arabs,” they added, and mentioned they were hit in the head, upper limbs, knees and back.
“Two Jewish men passed by, pushed them back from us and called the police and Magen David Adom (MDA). The two Jewish men gave us water and helped us," they added.
One of the men who was attacked said, “It pains me, because in my profession I treat Jews. I have never looked at a man’s origin. I also have Jewish friends and I live among Jews.”
The men also said that the attackers swore at them and said “you are Arab dogs, don’t stay here.”
A police statement said that the three were sitting on a beach in Kiryat Haim when the first suspect, a 23 year old from Kiryat Haim, came up to talk to the victims. He later returned with his friends and together they attacked the three.
Following the attack the three men were sent to the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa for treatment, where they filed a complaint over the attack.
“We didn’t hurt anyone,” they told Ynet on Friday. “They just started beating us with no reason. They almost killed us. We asked them to stop but they kept going. They were only pushed away when other people arrived. We hope the police will apprehend them,” they concluded.
