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An Eritrean man has died after he was shot and beaten by a mob after he was mistaken for an attacker during a raid in southern Israel, Israeli police say. The attack on Sunday night at a bus station in the city of Beersheba saw a Palestinian man armed with a rifle and a knife kill an Israeli soldier and wound about 10 other people. The Palestinian attacker was killed, while a security guard shot the Eritrean bystander, identified by Israeli media as 29-year-old
Haftom Zarhum, thinking he was an accomplice of the assailant. A video circulating online shows that a mob also beat Zarhum, who later died in hospital.
At least one Israeli soldier was filmed kicking Zarhum in the head as he lay bleeding on the floor of the terminal. Another man lifted a bench and dropped it on Zarhum’s head as others tried to protect him by placing a bar stool over his body. Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld confirmed Zarhum was “misidentified”.
“The man was hit by bystanders and individual civilians who were in the area. Police are looking into it now and have obtained the CCTV footage of the incident.” The Israeli IBA network posted footage of the attack, purportedly recorded by a surveillance camera. Rosenfeld said the “Palestinian attacker stabbed a soldier and stole his M-16 rifle,” opening fire on the crowd at the bus terminal. The soldier died in hospital.
The attacker was named by police as Muhand Alukabi, 21, a resident of Hura in the Negev. Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, called the attack a “natural response” and Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian group, said it was a “normal answer to Israeli crimes”.
Sunday’s attack brings the total number of people killed in the violence that erupted at the beginning of the month to 52 – 44 Palestinians and eight Israelis.
The incident comes just a day after five Palestinians were shot dead during alleged stabbing attacks – three of them in Hebron in the occupied West Bank. Palestinians have disputed the police version of events in at least some of the cases. Triggered by Israeli incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound last month, violence and protests against Israel’s occupation have increased in frequency across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.
Diplomatic moves to halt the more than two weeks of unrelenting violence has gained steam, with US Secretary of State John Kerry saying he plans to meet both the Israeli and Palestinian leaders in the coming days. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, rejected an idea from France that would see international observers sent to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
Israeli forces have responded with a crackdown on protesters, using tear gas, stun grenades, rubber-coated steel bullets and live ammunition. Checkpoints have been set up in the occupied East Jerusalem, where some of the attackers have come from, and about 300 soldiers on Sunday began reinforcing the police force.
On Sunday afternoon, Palestinians in Hebron marched from a local university to an Israeli settlement, where they were confronted by the army. More protests were held across the West Bank, including the city of Nablus, and in the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State John Kerry is calling on Israeli and Palestinian leaders to take urgent action to end the current “senseless” violence taking place in Israel and the West Bank.
Ahead of meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Kerry said yesterday that he would be working with them to find steps that could help reduce tensions.
In the meantime, he called on all sides to exercise restraint and refrain from actions that could escalate the situation. Kerry is expected to meet Netanyahu in Berlin later this week and with Abbas in Jordan over the weekend. Kerry pushed back on suggestions that diplomacy should take a back seat to the immediate goal of restoring stability. He said the two go “hand-in-hand.” — Al Jazeera
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