Police in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv have in the past two days arrested a series of suspects involved in separate attacks on Arabs in the two cities.
Two female suspects in last week's alleged attack of an Arab woman at a light rail stop in Jerusalem gave themselves up to police overnight, and on Saturday, Jerusalem police arrested a third suspect, a 17-year-old Jewish girl from a settlement near Jerusalem.
The three suspects will be brought before a judge in Jerusalem on Monday.
Police launched an investigation after Israeli media published photos of a group of teenage Jewish girls beating an Arab woman at a bus stop on February 25. No one filed a complaint with the police and there were no injuries reported.
Police examined security cameras at the Kiryat Menachem light rail stop after public outcry over the graphic photos, taken by left-wing activist and photographer Dorit Jordan Dotan, which show a group of girls yelling at and hitting an Arab woman wearing a hijab.
Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben Ruby said Sunday that it was impossible to determine who started the altercation, as the cameras have no sound. Ben Ruby said he expected additional arrests in the coming days.
Meanwhile, Tel Aviv Police on Monday morning arrested several Tiberias youths accused of beating a Jaffa man on the Tel Aviv promenade last Sunday night.
The youths were arrested after a Tel Aviv sub-district launched a special investigation into the incident. Police said they are still questioning the youths and trying to determine the motive for the attack.
The victim, 40-year-old municipal street cleaner Hassan Ausruf, said he had been working on the promenade near the Dolphinarium when he was surrounded and beaten by a group of over a dozen youths who called him a “dirty Arab”, and hit him over the head with a bottle and a garbage can.
Ausruf was taken to Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv suffering from contusions and lacerations to his head, as well as a fracture to his left eye socket.
In February,
Israeli NGO the Abraham Fund Initiatives – which works for the integration and equality of Arab citizens – sent a letter to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu calling for a new government program to deal with violence against Arabs.
Jpost.com staff contributed to this report.