Three African migrants stabbed near Tel Aviv Central Bus Station

Police are calling the attacks "botched robberies"; three arrested in connection to the crimes.

By BEN HARTMAN
African migrant walks with suitcase in south Tel Aviv 370 (R (photo credit: REUTERS/Baz Ratner )
African migrant walks with suitcase in south Tel Aviv 370 (R
(photo credit: REUTERS/Baz Ratner )
Three African migrants were stabbed and lightly wounded at three locations in south Tel Aviv on Saturday night, in what police say were botched robberies.
Within an hour or so of the stabbings on Rosh Pina, Lewinsky, and Solomon streets near the Central Bus Station, police announced that they had arrested three Israelis in connection to the crimes.
Police said that the three men did not know the victims and that the motive for the crimes was robbery.
In early January an Israeli man was arrested for stabbing an Eritrean infant in the head with a pair of scissors near the Central Bus Station. The man was inebriated at the time and mentally disturbed, police said, adding that he did not know the victim personally.
While under investigation the man told police that he carried out the stabbing for racial reasons, because he hates black people, who he referred to as “black terrorists.”
Over the past couple of years there have been other cases of groups of Israeli youths in south Tel Aviv, in Eilat, and elsewhere who targeted African migrants for beatings and robberies.
In a number of those cases police said the perpetrators targeted African migrants solely out of opportunism, while in other cases there was a racial motive as well.