The Israeli police on Wednesday arrested a man after attacking two officers who asked him to wear a face mask.
According to a police statement, the 21-year-old was traveling by public transportation while not wearing a mask on his face, even though the law requires it. Police said that as soon as he was asked by the cops to identify himself, he refused and started attacking them, causing them injuries.
Israel reinstated its indoor mask mandate at the end of June amid resurging COVID-19 cases throughout the country spearheaded by the Delta variant.
In another incident that took place this week in Rishon Lezion, a 22-year-old man from Tel Aviv was arrested on suspicion of slicing the tires of a police car shortly after receiving a fine for not wearing a mask.
The investigation of the incident revealed that municipal inspectors noticed two men who were not wearing masks at a shopping mall. The men began hurling expletives at the inspectors as they wrote them a ticket.
As the inspectors left the scene, a citizen approached them and said he had spotted a man puncturing one of their patrol car's tires.
Inspection of security camera footage revealed that the person who punctured the tires was one of the two men who had been fined at the mall a short while prior. The suspect was located the day after the incident and was taken in for questioning.
Earlier this week, a 22-year-old man from Beit Shemesh was arrested on suspicion of threatening a gas station employee with a knife after he asked him to wear a mask.
In another case, a bus driver was attacked after asking a passenger to wear a mask. The driver was taken to the hospital, suffering from injuries in his face. The attacker, a 21-year-old man, was arrested on suspicion of assault and battery.