Mulu Habtom Zerhoma, a wounded Eritrean, is evacuated from the scene of an attack in Beersheba, Israel, on Sunday. Israeli security officials said a 21-year-old Arab citizen of Israel opened fire in a southern Israeli bus station, killing an Israeli soldier and wounding 10 people. Zerhoma died of his wounds after an Israeli security guard fired at him, apparently thinking he was the assailant. — AP
Mulu Habtom Zerhoma, a wounded Eritrean, is evacuated from the scene of an attack in Beersheba, Israel, on Sunday. Israeli security officials said a 21-year-old Arab citizen of Israel opened fire in a southern Israeli bus station, killing an Israeli soldier and wounding 10 people. Zerhoma died of his wounds after an Israeli security guard fired at him, apparently thinking he was the assailant. — AP
An Eritrean man has died after being mistakenly shot and beaten by a mob during an attack in Israel, as a wave of violence spread fear and defied international calls for calm.
More than two weeks of unrest have raised warnings of the risk of a full-scale Palestinian uprising, while some Israeli politicians have urged residents to arm themselves to fend off the threat of stabbings and gun assaults.
The attacks, and violent protests which have erupted across Israel and the Palestinian Territories, have prompted a range of security measures while Israel has rejected a proposal for international observers at a key religious site.
Sunday night’s mob violence came after a gunman also armed with a knife stormed a bus station in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba, shooting dead 19-year-old Israeli soldier Omri Levi and wounding around 10 others.
The gunman, identified as 21-year-old Arab Israeli Mohannad Al-Aqaby, was killed, while a security guard at the bus station shot the 29-year-old Eritrean thinking he was a second attacker. A mob also beat him, Israeli media reported.
Video that spread online appears to show the Eritrean lying on the ground after being shot and receiving blows to the head and body from angry bystanders.
The police identified him as Habtom Zarhum, with Israeli media describing him as an asylum seeker, like many Eritreans who have come to Israel.
The police promised an investigation, saying they “considered this incident as extremely serious”.
Sari Bashi, the Israel/Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, called the death a “tragic but foreseeable outgrowth of a climate in which some Israeli politicians encourage citizens to take the law into their own hands.”
Al-Aqaby was among the few Arab Israelis to allegedly carry out attacks in recent weeks. Arab Israelis make up some 17.5 per cent of the Israeli population and are largely supportive of Palestinians in the occupied territories.
The Arab Israeli mayor of Hura, where the police said Al-Aqaby was from, condemned the attack.
“We utterly and unreservedly condemn this despicable act and reject violence of any sort,” said the mayor, Mohammed Al-Nabari.
