Hevron: Assault near Ma’arat HaMachpela

Wednesday, July 3, 2019, 15:00 On Shabbat, Saturday, June 29, a group of yeshiva students were assaulted as they walked from the Givat HaAvot neighborhood in Kiryat Arba to Ma’arat HaMachpela in Hevron. As they were walking on Tzir Tzion, the road connecting Kiryat Arba to Hevron, they were assaulted by a group of Arabs who beat them and threw rocks at them.
Honenu Attorney Chayim Bleicher, who is representing one of the students, sent a letter to the Hevron Police demanding that the incident be investigated: “When my client was walking towards the Avraham Aveinu neighborhood in Hevron, he passed an Arab who assaulted him without any incitement from my client.”
Bleicher described the assault: “The assailant punched my client in the face and started to throw rocks at him and his friends. Other Arabs joined the assailant in throwing rocks. My client and his friends fled the scene as some of the rocks hit them,” and added, “More rocks were thrown at them from rooftops near the Erez Alley as my client and his friends were fleeing towards the Border Police checkpoint near Ma’arat HaMachpela. There army forces were summoned, They arrived at the scene and detained the suspect who assaulted my client.”
In the letter, Bleicher demanded that Department of Investigations and Intelligence of the Hevron Police thoroughly investigate the incident, examine the recordings from security cameras at the scene and “bring to justice all of the assailants who participated in the serious beating and rock-throwing.”
Bleicher stated that, “According to our knowledge of the situation the assault was filmed. We expect all of the participants in the assault to be detained and brought to justice so that the assailants and their friends will be deterred [from future assaults] and the level of security will increase.”