Israel Police and the Shin Bet domestic security service have arrested eight people over the murder of a Jewish man who died several days after he sustained critical head wounds during racially motivated riots across the country last month, according to details released Sunday after a gag order was lifted.
Yigal Yehosua, 56, died after he was struck in the head by a brick thrown by Arab rioters in the central city of Lod on May 11.
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Yigal Yehoshua succumbed to his wounds after being struck in the head by a brick thrown by Arab rioters in Lod
The suspects, six Arab residents of Lod and two Palestinians who were in Israel illegally, are to be charged with aggravated murder and other offences. The eight were detained in recent weeks as part of a joint operation between the Shin Bet and police's Central Investigation Unit.
According to the police, the group of eight decided to attack Jews as sectarian violence raged across the country during the war in Gaza that broke out a day earlier.
They allegedly erected makeshift roadblocks of stones and garbage cans on Hamasger Street in Lod, with the aim of slowing down Jewish-owned vehicles so that they could stone them.
The police said that Yehoshua was caught up in a roadblock and when the suspects identified him as a Jew, they started throwing stones at his car from close range.
Yehoshua was stuck on the head by a brick and critically wounded.
He still managed to drive on for several hundred meters and collapsed as he reached his own house.
Yehoshua's car collided with a parked vehicle and a neighbor who went onto the street to investigate the noise found him in a badly wounded state.
He was rushed to the nearby Shamir Medical Center, where he succumbed to his wounds six days later.
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President Reuven Rivin makes a condolence call to the family of murder victim Yigal Yehoshua last month
(Photo: GPO)
The investigation allegedly showed that some of the suspects tried to hide their involvement in the attack, even attempting to tamper with security camera footage from the scene.
The State Prosecutor's Office on Sunday morning filed a statement in intent to charge seven of the suspects with aggravated murder and and asked that they be detained until the end of the proceedings against them.