A 56-year-old Israeli man died Monday of wounds he suffered last week when he was hit in the head by a brick hurled by Arab rioters in the flashpoint town of Lod, according to reports.
Yigal Yehoshua, who is Jewish, was driving home Tuesday evening when he was swept up in the middle of violent protests after the death of Moussa Hassouna, a local resident who was shot during clashes between Arabs and Jews the night before, Haaretz reported.
After the attack, young Arabs told the news outlet that “this is the blood vengeance they were looking for in exchange for the death of Hassouna.”
An initial investigation found that Hassouna was standing dozens of feet from the Jewish suspects when he was shot, the Times of Israel reported.
Four Jewish suspects in the fatal shooting were ordered released Thursday after the suspicion against them was lowered from murder to reckless manslaughter, according to Haaretz.
Israeli border police stand by one of the entrances to the Arab-Jewish town of Lod, Israel, on May 13, 2021. REUTERS/Corinna KernThe Lod Magistrate’s Court rejected a request by police to keep them under house arrest.
The suspects, all of whom have gun permits, claimed they were acting in self-defense after a few young men approached them and tried to harm them.
A man passes by cars torched after a night of violence between Israeli Arab protesters and Israeli police in the mixed Arab-Jewish town of Lod, central Israel, Tuesday, May 11, 2021. AP Photo/Heidi LevineInvestigators suspect that at least one of the four aimed his gun at the group of Arabs rather than in the air, as they have claimed.
Yehoshua’s family has announced that they would donate his organs.
Arab Israelis gesture and wave Palestinian flags during the funeral of Mousa Hassouna in the central Israeli city of Lod near Tel Aviv, on May 11, 2021. AFP via Getty Images“Yigal was a paragon of co-existence, he did not fear anything,” his widow, Irena, told Channel 12 news. “He worked as an electrician and repaired homes for all — Arabs and Jews.”
She said she spoke to her husband half an hour prior to the attack.
Burned cars and a trash container in the mixed Jewish-Arab city of Lod on May 13, 2021. AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images“He was at the synagogue and said he was waiting for the rabbi’s blessing and would then come home. I wasn’t worried because it was nearby,” Irena said, Haaretz reported.
Several other people, Jewish and Arab, have been seriously wounded in shootings and assaults during the recent unrest.
A woman looks at one of the several vandalized graves in a Muslim cemetery in the mixed Jewish-Arab city of Lod, Israel, on May 14, 2021. AP Photo/Heidi LevineOn Thursday, 19-year-old IDF soldier Leon Shranin was seriously wounded in a beating, the Times of Israel reported.
He told Channel 12 he had been heading to his grandfather’s home in Bat Yam.
An Israeli police car burns after an Arab Israeli demonstration following the funeral of Mousa Hassouna in the central city of Lod near Tel Aviv, on May 11, 2021. AFP via Getty Images“There shouldn’t be clashes, it’s unnecessary, it’s nonsense,” Shranin told the network, the Times of Israel reported.
The soldier also said Saeed Mousa, an Arab who was attacked and savagely beaten by a Jewish mob in Bat Yam, is “a human, just like me.”
He added: “No one deserves to suffer like this.”
